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THE QUESTION 



OF 



Labour and Capital 



JOHN B. JERVIS 

(civil engineer) 
AUTHOR OF " RAILWAY PROPERTY ' 



" The hand of the diligent maketh rich." 
" He that gathereth by labour shall increase. " 
' Study a thrifty abstinence, and so aid in carrying forward a benign civilization." 






1^ 






. 



NEW YORK 
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

l82 FIFTH AVENUE 

1877 



^ 






Copyright, 

JOHN B. JERVIS. 

1877. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Introduction 9 

Labour and Capital 27 

Wages Fund 31 

Wages Fund. Paid out of Capital in anticipation of profits 34 

Competition and the Market 36 

Professor Perry, on competition between labour and capital 39 

Professor Walker, on competition between labour and capital 41 

Professor Cairnes, on competition between labour and capital 43 

Mr. W. Gladden, on competition between labour and capital 44 

Mr. J. N. Larned, on competition between labour and capital 45 

Deductions — from the Authors quoted 50 

Deductions — Remarks on First. 51 

Deductions — Remarks on Second 54 

Deductions — Remarks on Third 59 

Deductions — Remarks on Fourth 60 

Deductions — Remarks on Fifth 64 

Deductions — Remarks on Sixth 65 

Deductions — Remarks on Seventh 66 

Deductions — Remarks on Eighth 6j 

Remarks on the general condition of the parties in this 

question 71 

Strikes — Among labourers — general characteristics 7S 

Trades Unions — Objects and influence S2 

Trades Unions on Apprenticeship 9S 

Methods for ameliorating Industry by Community plan. . . 101 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Methods by Government Aid • 104 

Methods by Co-operative Industry 107 

Methods by Joint-Stock corporation 108 

Methods by Partnership, in connection with Joint-Stock 

corporations 1 20 

General Remarks on the several preceding methods 124 

Ability of the Labourer of Saving 13X 

Thrifty and Un-Thrifty 140 

Hints on Education 143 

Unequal Wealth — Its causes 147 

Conflict of labour and Capital, not peculiar to this branch 

of exchange 151 

Combinations or Monopolies 152 

The conflict between Labour and Capital should be 

adjusted ... 1 54 

Conclusion 171 

The question of Marriage , 1 73 

Civilization and Barbarism 1 78 

Who are the Working class 181 

Labour a Necessity in Civilization 185 

General Suggestions 190 

Necessity of Experience 195 

Elements of Moral Culture 1 96 

Instruments and Labour 206 



PREFACE. 



r J ^HIS small book, which I now submit to the public, 
"*- has been written with the view of showing that 
the young American working-man has the power of 
providing for his own well-being, and that there is no 
just ground of controversy between him and the capital- 
ist. I have shown that under our civilization these 
parties must work together, and that this is for their 
mutual benefit. They are equally dependent on the 
market for the compensation they must receive for 
their respective wages and profits. 

If the labourer refuses to work on this basis, he 
can have no wages ; and if the capitalist refuses such 
profit for his instruments as the market will give, he 
will get nothing. The question is precisely the same 
as with a merchant who holds his goods above the 

market. Nor can there be any doubt in the case of 

7 



g PREFACE. 

services or goods, that the man who holds at a rate 
above the market, will not be able to exchange. 

I have aimed to place the question in a practical 
light, with no partiality for either party, and earnest- 
ly commend my discussion to the study of all who 
may be interested in a question that is essentially 
involved in our civilization. 

JOHN B. JERVIS. 

Rome, N. Y., May, 1877. 



INTRODUCTION. 



HP HE question of labour and capital is a question 
of civilization. In the natural condition of men, 
— the untutored state, — the instruments of labour are 
hardly appreciable. They consist in such as are prac- 
ticable, under their rude state, to facilitate the labour 
of hunting, fishing, and gathering of natural fruits. As 
man advances in intelligence, he by slow and gradual 
steps discovers new wants, and taxes his ingenuity to 
find the means of gratifying them. In regard to some 
certain thing that most presses his attention he con- 
trives an improved method that facilitates his labour. 
One point gained, he finds the way opened for another. 
By continuing the process he steadily enlarges the 
scope of his instruments, until he reaches a demand 
that calls for the co-operation of several persons to 
provide the improved instruments he needs. This is 
a succinct statement of the progress of men from sav- 
age life to civilization. The history of mankind shows 
the process to have been a very slow one. As it has 
advanced, the necessity of law has been demonstrated. 
As property, or the instruments of labour were accumu- 



I o IN TROD UCTION. 

lated, it became necessary to secure these as well as 
the rights of labour to the individuals who had acquired 
and who exercised these rights of property. It is only by 
this method that ingenuity, skill and labour can be pro- 
tected, and every man secured in the results of his own 
labour, skill and prudence. It is manifest the induce- 
ment of endeavour is in securing to each man the pos- 
session and enjoyment of the product of his own labour 
and enterprise. 

It can hardly be necessary to discuss the great 
superiority of civilization. A few remarks, however, 
may not be out of place, more especially relating to 
the benefits of civilization as connected with the 
instruments of labour. The first thing to consider is, 
the vast effectiveness of the instruments of civilization 
as compared with those of untutored men. This 
effectiveness of the former over the latter, it is not 
easy to estimate. I think it quite safe to put this esti- 
mate at fifty to one ; that is, the work of one man 
under civilization will produce what would require 
fifty untutored men to produce in the same time. But 
to avoid what to some may appear extravagant, put this 
ratio at ten to one, which is certainly very moderate. 
This shows that one man with the instruments of 
civilization will produce as much goods that are called 
for by the wants of men, as ten men in an untutored 



INTRODUCTION. j r 

state. This result is reached by the skill and other 
instruments that have been provided by civilization. 

If the higher classes of skill (not the highest) are 
equal to the labour, and all other instruments equal 
these, then we have the product of one skilled labourer as 
equal to that of ten untutored men. In many industries, 
and indeed in nearly all, the difference would be much 
greater; but we see in even this moderate estimate, how 
vast is the superiority of civilized over untutored labour 
in production. This is not a result for a few, but in all 
the arts that are engaged in fabricating goods that are 
wanted for the use of men. And not merely in the 
mechanic arts, but in those improvements that greatly 
increase the production of the soil. It is these cir- 
cumstances in civilization that have raised the question 
of labour and capital. It brings into contest the la- 
bourer and the instruments of his labour. This con- 
test cannot occur if the workman furnish his own in- 
struments ; but to a large extent the labourer depends 
on the capitalist to furnish the instruments, and here 
the contest enters. In the following pages I have 
aimed to show this must be adjusted in the same way 
as all commercial transactions are, namely, under the 
law of demand and supply. 

The progress of civilization, or what is substantially 
the same thing, the useful arts, has advanced most 



1 2 INTRO D UCTIOiV. 

rapidly in countries that were under free governments, 
or where civil liberty was enjoyed, and where freedom 
of industry has been alike secured to all, and no special 
favours by law or usage to any. It is the government 
most eminently beneficial to the working-man. It is 
in fact the only one under which he has a fair field 
to make the best of his industry; while at same time 
it holds him to his personal responsibility in providing 
for his own wants. 

The object I have had in view in writing the fol- 
lowing pages, has been to show that American work- 
ing-men have a good field for their industry, and the 
power to provide for their own well-being. I should 
perhaps say young men, as no doubt many of the 
older members have passed the time and opportunity 
of their day. In regard to this position, it may be 
inquired— Have you fully considered the tendency of 
ignorance, prodigality and vice, that largely prevails 
among men, and the adverse influence these will exert 
to counteract your advice, and to break down the 
barriers you have raised ? In reply, I am fully aware 
of the fact, that there are strong tendencies in the 
human mind to resist the best advice that can be given, 
and that these influences have so far prevailed as to 
give us a large class of dependent, and to no inconsid- 
erable extent a degraded class of men. 



INTRO D UCTION. j 3 

On the other hand, it is beyond dispute that a large 
class of our American working-men, who had no other 
opportunities than those above mentioned, have reached 
conditions of comfortable independence and some of 
large wealth. Whatever may have been the circum- 
stances that have given rise to the wide differences 
that have appeared, it cannot be claimed as arising from 
difference in corporeal power, or even in mental power. 
It has, beyond question, resulted from a difference in 
education and moral energy. 

Looking back three centuries, at the condition of 
what was then regarded as the civilized world, what 
would have been said of a man who, at that day, 
should have predicted a state of society such as now 
exists in these American States ? Doubtless he 
would have been regarded by the ruling class of men 
as a fanatic— feeding on a wild imagination, and 
that the interests of society demanded the forcible 
suppression of his wild vagaries, as tending to disorder, 
anarchy and confusion. The progress from that day 
to this has certainly been slow ; the fanatics from time 
to time have been put down, but the truth that was 
involved, though covered by the dust that seemed to 
bury them and their principles, would take root and 
vegetate, spring up again and again ; men improving 
on each successive growth in their own knowledge of 



1 4 INTROD UCTION. 

the great truths which at first they only saw dimly. 
At length the great truth, that man has " certain 
inalienable rights, of life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness," that no power of authority or usage has 
any right to meddle with or resist, came to be the 
great principle of Institutional law in these States of 
America. Thus the great principle gained a solid 
foothold. The prejudice of education and caste is not 
easily removed, and long-continued struggle was ne- 
cessary to establish this great principle. It is, how* 
ever, manifest beyond controversy, that progress has 
been made in the advance of truth, and we are encour- 
aged, yea, warranted, to hope for its further advance- 
ment, in ways that will ameliorate the condition of 
men. 

It is in this faith I have written this book, in the 
full conviction that the American young man, in 
either mental or manual labour, has the fairest field 
before him that has ever been enjoyed in any age or 
country, and that he is indebted for this to our civ- 
ilization, whereby he is provided with the instrumen- 
talities accumulated by the labour, skill and persever- 
ance of his predecessors, making his labour vastly 
more productive for himself and also for society ; all 
secured by the beneficent care and protection of our 
free government. 



INTRO D UCTION. j 5 

The gre~t progress I have noted in ages that have 
passed, made against the general opinions of men, 
and under circumstances that gave no hope to any, 
except those regarded by common consent as dream- 
ing and wild visionaries, affords good ground to hope 
for still greater progress, and for a large reduction of 
the ratio of the dependent class of men. At the same 
time I am well aware of the difficulties in the way of 
moral advancement, and do not expect very rapid im- 
provement. But it is undeniable that, notwithstand- 
ing the impediments in the way, great and highly 
beneficial results have been attained, and we are there- 
fore justified in the faith, that cultivation in morals 
and useful education, will carry us forward to a higher 
degree of civilization. 

The great point is, to bring to the conviction of 
every young working-man the great truth, that he has 
-the power to elevate himself and take his rank among 
independent men. To incite him to see, that what 
has been done by others he can do. It has been my 
effort to so discuss this subject that more or less of this 
class may see this, and so employ their powers as will 
not only improve their well-being in material means, 
but give them the character of upright citizens, fully 
able to maintain, improve and hand down to their 
posterity the great blessing of a high civilization. And 



1 6 INTROD UCTION. 

I hope in God my effort may be somewhat useful as 
encouraging young men to lay hold of the advantages 
that are before them, and by a manly energy secure 
their own well-being, and establish the character of 
upright and useful citizens. In this view I commend 
the following pages, and fully believe that many will 
consider my advice, and thereby realize my hope that 
my labour w r ill not be in vain, and will tend to reduce 
the ratio of the dependent to the independent class 
of men. No doubt there are some who cannot be 
reached by any advice, and will still furnish material 
for, not only the dependent, but also for the degraded 
class. 

Public and private interests are concerned in this 
question ; for whatever promotes the well-being of the 
individual, advances the public interest. In this view 
the public should provide for elementary education. 
Ignorance is the parent of indolence and w r aste, and 
these stimulate crime, and train up a class of men 
who are at w r ar with society. The men who by dili- 
gent industry and prudence secure their own houses 
for residence and provide for the education and w r ell- 
being of their children, are not found among those 
who congregate for schemes of dissipation, violence 
and plunder. Every one that can be added to the in- 
dependent class, so far reduces the number of the 



INTRO D UCTION. 1 7 

dependent class, and thereby increases the safety, 
good order and prosperity of society. 

The conclusions presented in the following" pages 
have resulted from the experience and observations 
of a long life, in which I have had opportunity of ex- 
tensive intercourse in the business walks of life, to 
notice the tendency of men in the conduct of their 
affairs. In this I have seen one man with no supe- 
riority of ability, rising to a condition of usefulness, in- 
dependence and respectability, and another, with no 
lack of capability, except in the moral tone of his mind, 
failing to reach a respectable independence, and clos- 
ing life in circumstances of want. The question is 
evidently a moral one, and though moral improvement 
is not readily made, it has been made — is practicable, 
and the only foundation for the happiness of men. I 
therefore earnestly commend this subject to the 
young working-men, as entirely within the reach of a 
manly enterprise and indispensable for their happiness. 
They have only to exercise the capability they possess, 
in a proper manner, in order to reach that degree of 
independence which gives character and personal dig- 
nity. If, on the other hand, they have not the moral 
nerve to improve their powers, they will inevitably, 
sooner or later, be compelled to take their place in 
the ranks of the dependent class. It is a question 



1 8 INTRO D UCTION. 

every young man must decide for himself, and if he 
choose the manly course, barring incidental circum- 
stances that will sometimes be adverse to success, 
he will steadily rise to the condition of a useful and 
upright citizen, as all should do, in this free country, 
where every one has the full privilege to make the best 
of his situation. 

The working-man has no just ground to be hostile 
to capital. He is aided in his work by the instruments 
provided by capital, as he will see by comparing the 
results of his labour with these in his hand, with what 
it would be, if no such instrument could be had. It 
will require but little reflection to see the truth of 
what the economist " About " says : " Capital is the 
instrument civilization has put in the hands of labour." 

Capital is not an accident, nor in general the result 
of fortune. It is a thing acquired by what the 
" economists " call abstinence, that is, a man gathers 
by industry, and what he does not expend for any 
present use, he lays aside as an instrument fcr the 
future, regarding the present sacrifice. as more than 
compensated by the beneficial use that will ultimately 
result from this abstinence. In this way he accumu- 
lates the instruments that facilitate or increase the pro- 
ductions of his labour. It may often be noticed as an 
observation of working-men, that the capitalists are 



INTRODUCTION. jg 

fortunate men, and of those not capitalists, that they 
are unfortunate. No doubt there are circumstances 
that may and often do favour a man in the conduct of 
his labour. But in general these may be regarded as 
exceptional cases, when applied to large classes of 
men. In a country governed by Institutional law, 
or under civil liberty, where no class has, by law or 
usage, any privilege or right that is not equally enjoyed 
by all classes, there is no just ground of complaint on 
the part of any. All may succeed if they properly 
apply their powers. It is not fortune, but prudence 
and manly effort that makes the distinction. 

As above noticed, it is very possible, and even 
probable, that one man may enjoy in some way superior 
facilities that may favour the productions of his labour. 
But this only accounts for a difference in degree of 
success. It is still true as a general proposition, that 
the capitalist reaches his position by the diligent, 
prudent and economical conduct of his affairs. He 
sets out with a purpose to improve his well-being, and, 
with patient perseverance in his mind and labours, in 
due time reaches the result he had purposed. This 
course, under free government, is equally open to all 
men. If this is correct, why then do so large a propor- 
tion fail to improve it ? If one class of men reach so 
desirable a condition of independence, why not all ? 



20 



INTRODUCTION. 



That some do not reach this condition, arises from the 
fact they are not willing to practice the industry and 
abstinence necessary to secure the benefits of their 
own well-being. It is not always the case, that the 
latter class are indolent or incompetent. They have 
industry and capacity for business, but they are in too 
great haste for results — have not the patient perse- 
verance that can wait and restrain their desires. The 
slow and steady gains of well-directed industry and 
frugal habits, do not satisfy their ambition. The 
process appears too slow, and with a view to hasten to 
their goal, they engage in speculative operations, and 
not uncommonly outside of their regular calling, 
entering a field they have not properly surveyed, and 
of course very likely to lose what they may have 
gained. If one unsuccessful attempt would cure them, 
and bring their minds to return to and diligently 
pursue their regular calling, it might be expected they 
would profit by the development of their errors. But 
this rarely happens, and the resistless appetite for rapid 
gains tends to throw into the shade, if it does not de- 
stroy, the hopes of regular industry ; and so they go 
from one failure to another, until all relish is lost for the 
steady gains of industry, and their lives end in failure. 
It often happens this class are intelligent men, able to 
discuss affairs so well that their friends wonder why 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

it is they do not succeed ; — that so much ability 
should fail, and want instead of prosperity should be 
the result. The cardinal difficulty in their case is, 
they eschew the methods that experience has marked 
out, and hasten by an untried process to reach results 
that can only be obtained by systematic and patient 
perseverance. 

In this land of Institutional law, capitalists are the 
men who have accumulated by saving. It is in this 
way they have provided the instruments of labour for 
their own use, and for the class who have not practiced 
the necessary abstinence. These instruments are 
only accumulated under Institutional law, where every 
man is protected in the enjoyment of his own labour 
and enterprise. Without such protection there can 
be no adequate security, for no man accumulates if 
he is in danger of spoliation ; consequently under the 
apprehension of being deprived of their enjoyment, 
no such instruments can be had, and men must be 
content to do the best they may without them. There 
is no escape from this. 

What the working-man, as he enters on his career 
of industry should regard, is the fact, that these instru- 
ments of civilization are a great benefit to him. He 
finds them at his hand ready for use, and it is his in- 
terest to make the best use of them he may be able. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

It will be in his power to accumulate these instruments 
to a certain extent as his own, and this by the same 
means the capitalist accumulates them before him. 
So far as he does this he will enjoy the profits of his 
instruments in addition to the wages of his labour. If 
the instruments are too expensive for the means of the 
workman, he must depend on some capitalist who has 
provided them. In the latter case the workman must 
pay the capitalist in the form of interest or profit for 
their use. This is simply justice, and precisely what 
the workman will expect from his junior workmen, 
when he himself has become the capitalist. 

On the other hand, let the working-man consider 
wnat would be the situation if no such instruments 
had been provided. He must go back to the uncivil- 
ized condition of society, where no such instruments 
were known. How shall he appreciate or comprehend 
such an alternative as this ? It is hardly possible to 
impress the force of this contrast on the mind of any 
man, surrounded by civilization, when no such alter- 
native is seen. The idea of making goods by a pro- 
cess that would require a hundred men to do the 
work of one, cannot be realized under our existing 
civilization. If, then, the instruments are so important, 
it is certainly reasonable and just they should receive 
a profit commensurate with the value of the absti- 



INTRODUCTION. 2 $ 

nence that was necessary to provide them. This is 
precisely what the working-man will expect, after he 
has accumulated the instruments by his own absti- 
nence or saving. 

If there could be any possible ground to doubt the 
utility of the instruments, it should be carefully ex- 
amined and exposed. The fact that all prudent men 
make the exertion of abstinence, in order to procure 
them, is ample evidence of their usefulness. It is 
simply because they are an aid to industry, that they 
are provided or used at all. No workman is com- 
pelled to use them, nor does he use them, except so 
far as he regards them a benefit in the productiveness 
of his labour, that inures to his own advantage. 
Why then does the workman complain of an instru- 
ment that increases the benefits of his own labour by 
amplifying his product ? He does not complain of 
the instrument in itself — but claims, that he should 
have some portion of the profits of the instrument, in 
addition to the wages of his labour Here is the 
manifest injustice of the claim, and it is at the basis 
of the conflict between labour and capital. The in- 
struments and the labour are equally in the open 
market. The workman can command the instru- 
ments he needs, at the market rate, in the same way 
he commands the market rate for his labour. In the 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

one case tne labour is sold, and in the other the in- 
strument is sold, and both are exchanged on the basis 
of the law of demand and supply. Neither party is 
compelled to contract, and only enter on engage- 
ment in view of what they regard as a measure that 
will promote their respective interests. 

The instrument is a necessity, for the reason 
that it is a means of production, without which the 
labourer would be unable to accomplish his work 
except at a greatly increased amount of labour, and 
this would be manifestly adverse not only to his own 
interest, but also to that of the public. It cannot be 
a question as to whether the instrument shall or shall 
not be used ; its importance in production is too 
manifest for this to be entertained, and the only 
question that has been involved in this conflict is, the 
relative wages and profits, as between the workman 
and the capitalist. These parties come together to 
negotiate terms for their respective services, and 
stand on the same footing as any parties engaged in 
buying and selling commodities in all commercial 
exchanges. In the following discussion I have aimed 
to show that this transaction between labour and 
capital is precisely the same as that between any 
buyer and seller, and has no claim to be regarded in 
any special sense as a conflict, or more strictly a con- 



INTRODUCTION. 2 $ 

test. It may be said in general of all commercial 
negotiations, there is often more or less of contest, 
and that between labour and capital is neither an ex- 
ception nor a peculiarity. They are all governed by 
the one law of demand and supply. 



A 



THE QUESTION OF 

LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 



r 1 ^HE question of labour and capital, or their re- 
-*• lation to each other, has of late been very much 
discussed on the platform, in the public press, and by 
formal treatises. The idea very generally entertained 
has been, that there is something wrong in this rela- 
tion, which needs in some way to be adjusted. 

In the existing organization in civilized communi- 
ties, labour and capital are united in the various works 
of production. In so far as the workmen and capital- 
ist are the same persons — furnishing their own capital 
and doing their own work, there can be no controversy : 
wages and profits go to the same parties. The main 
question in this discussion is with labour and capital 
as two parties in production. The one receiving 
compensation in the form of wages, and the other in 
profits or interest on the capital. The point at issue\ 
is, — that the labourer does not receive his proper) 
share in the fruits of production. 

It is important to have terms well understood. 
Writers on industrial economy have very generally, I 



2 g THE QUESTION OF 

believe, treated the term " labour and capital" as the 
proper designation of the relation in which the em- 
ployer stands to the employed. In his " Treatise on 
Wages/' Professor F. A. Walker does not assent to 
this term. On page 289 he says: "The true wages 
question is the question of employment. Hence the 
popular phrase, ' the contest of labour and capital/ be- 
comes at once revealed as a misnomer. The true 
controversy is not between the labourer and the capi- 
talist, but between the labourer and his employer, to 
whom labourer and capitalist are compelled to re- 
sort for the opportunity to produce wealth and derive 
income." . . . . " The employer, the entrepeneur, stands 
between the capitalist and the labourer, makes his 
terms w T ith each, and directs the courses and methods 
of industry w T ith almost unquestioned authority. To 
labourer and to capitalist alike he guarantees a reward 
at fixed 'rates, taking for himself whatever his skill, 
enterprise and good fortune shall secure." As this 
proposition of Professor Walker upsets a long-estab- 
lished term as a " misnomer," it may be well to 
examine it. The argument goes to establish the 
employer as a common contracting party between 
labourer and capitalist. It is obvious that in some 
way the employer must make terms with the capitalist 
for his funds. The supposition is, the employer has 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 2 g 

no capital of his own ; if it were otherwise, he would 
be the capitalist. How then is he to contract with 
the capitalist ? Certainly he must have security to 
offer for the funds he requires to carry on his work of 
production. It cannot be supposed the capitalist will 
contract his funds without security. If the employer 
gives security, it must be because he has the property 
necessary for such security, or he must have a char- 
acter so high the capitalist will furnish the funds on 
the character of the employer. In the first case, it is 
evident the employer is the capitalist ; in the second, 
the capitalist takes the risk of the enterprise on the per- 
sonal character of the employer, and a failure of profits 
will fall on the capitalist who furnished the funds. 

The idea of Professor Walker is, I think, that 
capitalists do not go into production on the basis of 
profits, but on the basis of loan to producers. Now it 
is obvious there must be a party that can furnish 
funds for the business of production ; and these funds 
can only come from capitalists. If the capitalist fur- 
nish funds, direct, for any work of production, depend- 
ing on the profits that may arise from such use of 
his capital, then there can be no question he is one 
party in the work of production. If the employer has 
the funds, or the ability to furnish them on his own 
security, then he is clearly the capitalist, and the 



go THE QUESTION OF 

only party interested in the profits. In the latter 
case the capitalist who may furnish funds or loans 
looks to his securities for interest and the re-payment 
of his funds, and has not necessarily any interest in 
the profits of the enterprise. 

In any light in which this question can be viewed, 
I see no escape from the conclusion, that in some way 
there must be capital furnished on the basis of re- 
muneration from the profits of the enterprise. If I 
am right, then capital must be strictly one party in 
production ; and I see no more appropriate term for 
this discussion, than " labour and capital," as the two 
parties involved in this question. If, as in some cases 
claimed, the labourer waits for his pay until his 
product is marketed, then the labourer, so far as bis 
wages is concerned, is the capitalist, and sustains 
himself on his own means for the time being. 

The employer, in the sense presented by Professor 
Walker, must not be confounded with the person of 
superintendent. The latter is employed by the capital- 
ist not for his capital, but for his skill as an expert in 
conducting the kind of production they engage in. In 
this capacity he employs labour, and conducts the 
affairs of the enterprise under the general advice and 
instructions of his principals. In this sense he 
may be regarded as an employer of labour. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 3 1 

Wages Fund. 

Economists have taken the ground there was a 
"wages fund" from which wages were paid. In 
their discussions, they assume no wages can be paid 
beyond the resources of this fund. That if one class 
receive a greater proportion than their share, others 
will receive less. In the discussion of this subject 
in his treatise on " Political Economy," page 159, 
Professor Cairnes says : " As I understand this pas- 
sage (quoting from Mr. Mill), it embraces the following 
statements : 1st, Wages is a general term, used in the 
absence of any other more familiar, to express the ag- 
gregate of all wages at any given time in possession of 
the labouring population ; 2d, On the proportion of 
this fund to the number of the labouring population 
depends at any given time the average rate of wages ; 
3d, The amount of the fund is determined by the 
amount of general wealth which is applied to the direct 
purchase of labour, whether with a view to productive 
or unproductive employment." On page 160, he further 
states : " Our analysis thus leads us to the result, that 
the passage quoted from Mr. Mill cannot be taken 
to contain controversial matter. The statements are 
such as may not be disputed, once their meaning is 
clearly understood. At the same time it must be 
freely confessed that it contains no solution of the 



22 THE QUESTION OF 

wages problem : it is not a solution, but a statement 
of that problem — a statement, as it seems to me, at 
once clear, comprehensive, and succinct, presenting 
in clear light the two factors which constitute the phe- 
nomenon — the wages fund resulting from the direct 
demand for labour, and the labouring population form- 
ing the supply. The solution will consist in connecting 
these factors with those principles of human nature 
and facts of the external world which form the prem- 
ises of economic science.' , 

I do not see any objection to the statement of 
Professor Cairnes in the three propositions above 
stated, nor in the paragraph at the close of the second 
of the above quotations. But if, as he states, " it is 
not a solution but a statement of the problem,*' I 
can hardly appreciate its practical value. There 
appears a difficulty in ascertaining the value of the 
factors, without which no definite solution could be 
reached. No doubt the funds for wages must be ob- 
tained from capital, and that an increase of capital tends 
to increase the funds applicable to wages, and this may 
or may not affect the rate of wages, that depending 
on the supply of labour at the time. 

For a doctrine that has been so largely accepted, 
and discussed with much ability, it is certainly singu- 
lar that it has not taken a shape to admit of distinct 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL 33 

solution. What can be the value of the theory of the 
" wages fund," if we cannot ascertain what the amount 
of the fund is ? How can we make available, or 
reach a dividend when the value of the factors is not 
known ? I am not aware that any one has attempted 
to establish any rule or process by which it could be 
determined for any country, among the numerous 
complications of its industries, what amount had been 
set aside or estimated for wages. The wages that 
had been paid in any country, may be ascertained for 
some previous year, though in the vast complications 
of numerous industries, this would be attended with 
great difficulty. So far as ascertained they would be a 
guide as to what the " wages fund " may be for the 
next year. At best, that I can see, this would be 
only an approximation ; and considering the changes 
that frequently occur, by which one industry would 
be increased and another diminished, could hardly 
afford a basis of definite determination for any par- 
ticular industry for the ensuing year, what the rate of 
wages should be ; which is the solution sought. 

Professor F. A. Walker (" wages question ") has 
discussed the " wages fund," and regards it as no solu- 
tion of the wages question. He is the only author 
I have met who takes exception to the doctrine of a 
" wages fund." For the following reasons I consider 



34 THE QUESTION OF 

Professor Walker correct in the conclusions he has 
drawn. First, I see no practicable method of ascer- 
taining what amount of capital may at any time be 
set aside as a fund for the payment of wages. Second, 
if the aggregate fund could be ascertained, I see no 
way that a disposition of the fund could be so appor- 
tioned to each of the numerous industries as would 
determine the rate of wages in each. The circum- 
stances that affect the market for products, must 
influence the rate of wages, rising at one time with 
one branch of production, and falling with another. 
If this is correct, it leaves the " wages fund " as no 
solution, or of no practical value in determining the 
rate of wages at any particular time for any special 
industry. 

So far as I can see, the doctrine of a " wages fund " 
has no further value than that an increase of capital 
may be regarded as tending to increase the ratio of its 
appropriation to objects of production. In this, capital 
will seek those industries that promise the best profit. 

Wages Paid out of Capital. 

In his discussion of this question, Professor Walker 
takes the ground that wages are paid out of production, 
and not out of capital, and therefore there can be no 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 35 

a wages fund." No doubt the production is relied on 
as the ultimate resource for the payment of wages ; 
but I think it a very general practice to pay wages 
before the product is available, and certainly the avails 
of production in such case must be anticipated by the 
appropriation of capital. If a labourer can support him- 
self until his product is marketed, he then furnishes the 
capital necessary for his support, while he labours for 
his wages. So far the labourer becomes the capitalist. 
This is the case with all labourers who furnish their own 
capital. Farmers, especially in the employment of 
single or unmarried men, by the season, often pay at 
the end of the season, the farmer furnishing the 
board or living of the labourer. If the labourer has 
a family to support, the farmer will generally be re- 
quired to advance on his wages, if he does not pay 
monthly. 

In manufacturing industry it is the general practice, 
so far as I have known, to pay labour semi-monthly, or 
monthly ; and as the goods made cannot be marketed 
so as to realize the proceeds until some months after 
the labour is performed, capital must come in for the 
payment of wages. No doubt there are manufac- 
turers who do not pay in this prompt manner, and 
sometimes resort to the method of truck or store pay, 
a method not to be commended, and always indicating 



36 THE QUESTION OF 

a dependent condition of the labourer. But as before 
stated, when wages is deferred, the labourer so far be- 
comes the capitalist, supporting himself until the pro- 
duct is marketed. 

I concede the proposition, that production must 
pay both wages and profits, though capital is necessary 
to anticipate wages until production can reach a mar- 
ket. This is true, whether the labourer furnish it him- 
self, or it be furnished to him by his employer. 

Competition and Market. 

In the transactions of men for the sale and pur- 
chase of goods, competition and the market will rule 
their trade. To illustrate : let A desire to make pur- 
chase for a certain class of property that is held by D, 
and if E and F hold on sale the same class of prop- 
erty, A will avail of the competition that may be of- 
fered by D, E and F to obtain a favourable rate. This 
is obviously favourable to A ; but if A, B and C desire 
to purchase, and there is only D that has that class of 
property on the market, then the competition will be 
in favor of D, and he will obtain the highest price that 
either A, B or C may be willing to pay. In either 
case, the rate will be settled by the supply and demand 
for that particular class of property or goods on the 
market. However far apart the parties may com- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 37 

mence negotiation, they will come at what they under- 
stand to be the market rate, before they close the 
transaction. It is immaterial whether the negotiation 
is on a cash or credit basis. Parties in such negotiations 
are very likely to look each to his own view of the 
market, and thereby produce much contest, in sup- 
porting their respective views. But however they 
contest that the seller cannot afford the goods at so 
low a rate, or the buyer that he cannot afford to pay 
so high, if they consummate the transaction, it will 
be on the market value, whether under competition or 
not. Here we see the general method of business, 
though in many cases there is so little disparity 
of opinion as to the market value, that little or no con- 
test is experienced. Men of business will not waste 
time in contest over what they know to be the market 
value ; so well is it understood as the basis of all regu- 
lar business transactions. 

In the above remarks, it is understood, the parties 
stand on an even basis, and no peculiar advantage held 
by either. Notwithstanding it is a contest or conflict 
more or less severe, according to the position of the 
respective parties and their appreciation of the con- 
dition of the market, it rests on the law of supply 
and demand, and though one or the other may com- 
plain, it is submitted to as inevitable when the transac- 



3 g THE QUESTION OF 

tion is closed. No one complains of this, and in fact 
no other rule could he substituted. 

Is there then any reason why the negotiations 
between labour and capital should not be adjusted on 
the same principle as in the case above stated be- 
tween buyer and seller ? The capitalist desires to 
purchase labour on the best terms the market will 
allow, and the labourer sells his labour for the best 
wages he can command. If there is more work to be 
done than labour to perform it, the competition will be 
in favor of the workman, and the market in his favour ; 
on the other hand, if there are more workmen than 
w T ork, capital will have the advantage. The case is 
clearly parallel to that of buyer and seller — resting 
on the same basis of competition and the market value 
of the commodity in question. 

To this it is replied, the parties in the case of labour 
and capital do not stand on an even footing — that 
labour is dependent on wages for the means of subsist- 
ence, and thereby compelled to accept what capital 
may offer. No doubt there are numerous cases in all 
departments of business where the parties to an ex- 
change do not stand on an equal basis of independence. 
One of the parties may be under pressing need, that 
brings his negotiations under restraint, and compels 
him to yield to terms that under freedom he would not 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 39 

consent to ; but notwithstanding such cases, no one 
thinks of changing the basis of exchange, leaving every- 
one to reap the benefit of the favourable circumstances 
that he may find in his negotiations. The rule is one 
of general acceptance, that a man is justified in con- 
cluding the best bargain the condition of the parties 
and the market will permit. It is impossible to es- 
tablish any other rule— it is founded on the principle 
that man is a free agent endowed with power and 
ability with the duty of taking care of himself. 
Under this rule an article is worth what it will com- 
mand on the market. This is precisely correct, though 
the article in trade may have cost more. This certain- 
ly offers no excuse for any deception that may be at- 
tempted. But it is charged that the capitalist takes 
advantage of the labourers' necessities, and this gives 
all the force there is to this controversy on the ques- 
tion of wages, as in conflict with capital 

In his elements of " Political Economy," sixth 
edition, Professor Perry on page 136 says: " Capital 
does not like to lose its profit any more than the la- 
bourer likes to lose his bread. In a true and general 
view, the one is under just as much pressure' to employ 
labourers, as the other to get employment. They 
come together of necessity into a relation of mutual 
dependence, which God has ordained, and which. 



40 THE QUESTION OF 

though man may temporarily disturb it, he can never 
overthrow." It will be noticed, this view of Professor 
Perry places the parties on the basis of equality in 
their negotiations. But while this is true, Professor 
Perry seems to admit the existence of circumstances 
that give capital an advantage, though he places the 
blame on the labourer, as at page 140, he remarks — ■ 
" It is not denied that capital takes advantage of the ig- 
norance and immobility of labourers, and sometimes se- 
cures their services at a less rate than the just relations 
of capital and labour then and there would indicate ; 
but the remedy for this is not in arbitrary interference of 
government in the bargain, but in the intelligence and 
self-respect of the labourers which shall fit them to in- 
sist on a just bargain. In this whole sphere of ex- 
change, the just and comprehensive rule always w r ill 
be, that when men exchange services with each other 
each party is bound to look out for his own inter- 
est, to know the market value of his own service, and 
to obtain the best terms for himself which he can 
make. Capital does this for itself, and labourers ought 
to do this for themselves, and if they are persistently 
cheated in the exchange, they have nobody to blame 
but themselves. Government should give them all 
facilities for intelligence : they should give themselves 
a character, and cherish a hearty self-respect, which 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 4 ! 

there is nothing in their position to diminish ; towards 
such labourers, capital occupies no vantage ground in 
an exchange of mutual services." 

The substance of the above quotation is, that 
the laws of trade must govern in the exchanges of 
labour and capital, same as in other exchanges, and that 
the labourer must depend on himself to obtain a stand- 
ing of equality with capital. Tacitly, it is an admis- 
sion the present condition of labourers does not in 
general maintain this equality. 

Professor F. A. Walker, in his " wages question," 
page 291, remarks ; "Since, then, the employer gets 
his profits only as the labourer gets his wages, 
and because the labourer gets his wages it is 
difficult to see that the employer is any more neces- 
sary to the labourer than the labourer is to the employer, 
or that either has any natural advantage over the 
other." Again, at page 295, Mr. Walker says : u We do 
not, then, find any ground for attributing to either 
employer or labourer a natural advantage over the 
other." Notwithstanding these positions, in alluding 
to the poverty of labourers, which he says is not uni- 
versal but very general, on page 297, makes the fol- 
lowing remark : " They are, therefore, unable to stand 
out against their employers and make terms for their 
services, or to seek a better market for their labour in 



42 THE QUESTION OF 

another town or city, but must accept the first offer 
for employment, however meagre the compensation. ,, 
. . . " They lack the primary physical means of sustain- 
ing that contest." At the same time Professor Walker 
sets forth reasons to show that capital has a strong 
interest to yield to the workmen in the contest. He 
discusses with much fulness and fairness the circum- 
stances of the two parties. 

In regard to the labourer, Professor Walker sets 
forth the difficulties in regard to mobility, as a reason 
the labourer is not able to avail of the competition for 
labour in other towns than the one of his residence. 
Though the expense of mobility is greatly less in 
regard to time and money than it was half a century 
ago, it is no doubt serious to most labourers, and as 
Mr. Walker discusses it, a great impediment to se- 
curing the benefit on the part of the labourer of general 
competition. 

This subject is discussed under a somewhat dif- 
ferent aspect from either Professors Perry or Walker, 
by Professor Cairnes in his " Political Economy." 
Professor Cairnes at page 233, says : " I hold that, at 
least in countries in which the industrial and com- 
mercial spirit is strong, the power of capitalists by 
combination to depress wages or to keep them down 
is not a whit more real than that of workmen by 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 43 

similar means to force them up. Either may, no 
doubt, effect their object for a time; but neither, as I 
believe, can be permanently successful. ,, In his 
further discussion he points out the difficulties under 
which labour is placed, and makes the remark page 
285 — " I am, therefore, on this point at one with the 
socialists ; but while I agree with them so far, I am 
wholly unable to accept the means which socialism 
proposes for effecting the required elevation. The 
leading idea in most schemes of socialistic reform is 
the notion of raising labourers from dependence on the 
labour market by throwing on society, in the person 
of the State, the duty of providing them with capital. 
Now by whatever means it is sought to give effect to 
this idea — whether through the mechanism of a State 
Bank," " or by loans without security," " one and 
all are open to the objection of doing violence to 
the principle of property, the weight and scope of 
which objection I have already sufficiently insisted 
on." On page 287 Professor Cairnes says : " Keeping 
this object in view, I think it should at the outset be 
clearly laid down that there is no royal road to the 
possession of capital. Capital can only be created by 
saving, and, where people have not saved themselves, 
can only be honestly obtained by offering to those 
who have saved, an adequate inducement in the form 



44 THE QUESTION OF 

of security and interest to prevail on them to part 
with it. If, then, the labourer is to emerge from his 
present position and become a sharer in the gains of 
capital, he must in the first instance learn to save." 
This advice of Mr. Cairnes is excellent, and should 
be fully considered by every labouring man, and es- 
pecially the young. 

After pointing out the means the labourer has for 
effecting savings, Professor Cairnes, at page 289, says : 
" To say this, however, is by no means to say that 
the labouring classes, as a whole, are now prepared to 
enter on this path, or that any very great change in 
our modes of carrying on industry can soon or easily 
be effected. I am far indeed from thinking so. 
But here again I desire to point out that the obstacles 
in the way are not physical, are not even economic, 
but moral or intellectual ; or if economic, only in so 
far as economic results depend on intellectual and 
moral conditions." From the above it will be seen 
Mr. Cairnes' hopes are not very strong for improving 
the condition of the labourer. 

Mr. Washington Gladden, in his book on " Working 
Men and their Employers,' 7 has discussed the question 
of labour and capital in a very practical manner. Mr. 
Gladden frankly examines both sides of the question, 
and finds merit and fault with each party. It is, how- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 45 

ever, obvious that he is under the impression there is 
some hardship towards the labourer that ought to be 
ameliorated ; but he places his hopes of this on the 
basis of moral and intellectual culture. Mr. Gladden 
has large hopes from co-operation, and none at all 
from communism. His book may be read with profit 
by both working-men and capitalists ; and I hope it 
may have a large circulation. His discussion of the 
influence of intoxicating drinks is very sensible, and 
should not fail to exert a highly favourable influence. 
In the recent work of Mr. J. N. Larned, "Talks 
about Labour," I find some curious propositions, mak- 
ing the labourer a very impotent member of society. 
Mr. Larned says, page 23 : " Here, then, entangled 
helplessly in the meshes of the vast net-work of this 
modern organization of labour and exchange, stands 
the man who has hands and brain, intelligence, strength, 
and will to work, according to the demand of nature, 
for what he needs, but who stands empty-handed 
— with no accumulation of things hitherto pro- 
duced — no capital. What can he do ? There are no 
wild creatures any more within his reach that he can 
hunt for food, or whose skins he can appropriate for 
clothing. There is not an animal that he can kill 
which is not the property of somebody — stamped with 
the right of possession by acquirement or accumula- 



46 THE QUESTION OF 

tion." This is certainly singular language in a country 
in which labour is free, and the rights of property 
secured to all who are willing to practice the industry 
and frugality by which all property is accumulated. It 
is evident Mr. Larned is at war with the existing sys- 
tem of labour, regarding the labourer as suffering 
from the oppression of capital, or from the accumula- 
tion of others. But he has not left the subject quite 
so bald as this, — not quite so ready as it would seem, 
to abandon civilization and take to hunting for animals 
that belong only to those who can take them. 

At page 44, Mr. Larned says : " First of all, there 
is the capital that has been accumulated in the hands 
that hold it by industry and economy ; by hard work, 
producing as much as possible, and by saving or un- 
wasteful habits, consuming as little as may be." This 
is sound economy. Mr. Larned goes on to discuss 
other methods of acquisition, which he approves 
in part, and condemns in part ; it is not necessary to 
follow these, as we are discussing the relations of labour 
and capital, and the admission above quoted shows Mr. 
Larned to believe that accumulation may be by labour 
and saving. 

Mr. Larned says, page 75 : " A man cannot be a good 
artisan or mechanic in any kind of hand-labour which 
makes the least demand upon intelligent faculties, 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, 47 

without concentrating so much of all his powers upon 
the immediate object of his labour, that he is com- 
pelled to trust its ultimate results, so far as his own ben- 
efit is concerned, to other agencies." This is certainly 
taking from the labourer all hope of improvement by 
cultivating his intellect, except so far as this may be 
brought to bear on the article he manipulates. Still, 
Mr. Larned is evidently engaged in an effort to pro- 
mote the elevation of the labourer ; though it is diffi- 
cult to see how this can be done by any other means 
than by the elevation of the labourer in mental and 
moral culture. 

Again, on page 78, Mr. Larned says : " I am con- 
vinced that the desertion and deterioration of mechan- 
ical industries will continue to be an increasing evil 
until we have begun in some way to cut down the 
excessive premiums which our present adjustment of 
the relationships between capital and labour puts upon 
those faculties and energies that enter into what we dis- 
tinguish from other labour by calling it business." The 
idea of Mr. Larned appears to be, that labour does not 
get its due share in production. The remedy called for 
by him is a union in some way between labour and 
capital, by which the labour will participate in the 
profits of capital. If I understand him, the plan of 
organization for production is to be such that the 



48 THE QUESTION OE 

labourer will have some portion of the profits of capi- 
tal in addition to his wages. It is obvious this claims 
for labour something beyond the market value of 
wages out of the profits due to capital ; in other words, 
the labourer is to have some portion of the profits due 
to the instruments, though he has not accumulated any 
portion. It must be remembered that under our or 
ganization of labour, wages is paid before anything goes 
to profits of capital, and if the production is unprofit- 
able, capital must first lose. The labourer does not lose 
unless the capitalist fails, and consequently loses all 
profits. This feature in our organization of labour 
should not be lost sight of. It is clearly in this feature 
the labourer has the advantage over the capitalist. 

In any production that may admit of being worked 
on shares, by which a certain part is to go to the la- 
bourer, and a certain part to the capitalist, there can be 
no obj ection to the method of providing specifically what 
portion each shall have. In such case the risk of loss 
would fall equally on both. In the work of farm pro- 
duction, this share plan is often adopted, as when a 
capitalist furnishes a farm and contracts with a ten- 
ant to receive in lieu of rent, a certain share of the 
product. This is often done in agricultural affairs, 
but in that case the tenant supports himself and pro- 
vides the labour and materials necessary to cultivate 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ^g 

the farm. In fact the tenant must have some capital, 
and of consequence a portion of the instruments of 
his labour. 

At page 80 Mr. Larned says : " One becomes nat- 
urally the employer, and one the employed, instead of 
each being the employer of the capabilities of the 
other on fairly adjusted terms. One receives his daily 
rate of wages, fixed for the most part by the average 
state of need in his class ; the other makes what he 
can out of the bargain, and drives it hard to make the 
utmost. It is very plain to me that no equity in the 
partitioning of the products of human industry can be 
had under the wages system that we now maintain." 

It will be noticed that Mr. Larned rests his plan 
for the improvement of the labourer on some method 
of contract with the capitalist, though I do not see that 
he specifies the method to be adopted, as to how these 
parties are to form this co-partnership or contract for 
production. From his discussion of the proposition 
it is evident he does not consider the world has yet 
reached that point of civilization necessary to carry 
out his idea. Speaking of the time it will require to 
educate men up to his system, or ideal system, he 
says, page 96 : "I do not expect it very soon. I am not 
sure we are within ten centuries of it yet." This is 
certainly " hope deferred." It may be that some men 

4 



c o THE Q UES TION OF 

may work under the impulse of such a hope, but it 
seems important to examine the matter very carefully 
and see if it be not possible to find a more speedy so- 
lution. 

It will be noticed, the authors I have quoted main- 
ly direct their attention to discover some benefit to 
the labourer which they suppose he does not now en- 
joy. I shall have occasion to make further reference 
to them in the following pages. In the mean time I 
earnestly recommend to all who desire to follow this 
subject, a careful attention to their discussions. 
Though I do not assent to all the positions taken in 
those treatises, they will be found of great interest and 
value on the important subject of industrial economy. 

From the authors quoted I make the following 

Deductions. 

First. — That under our present civilization, the 
productions required to supply the wants of men must 
be obtained by the united application of labour and 
capital. 

Second. — That the union of capital and labour in- 
volves a competition between these parties, as to the 
wages and profit to each, in the same way that per- 
tains to all transactions in exchange. 

Third. — That owing to his condition of depend- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. t; x 

ence, the labourer does not stand in this competition 
on an even basis with the capitalist. 

Fourth. — That the capitalists (with many excep- 
tions) are disposed to avail of their advantage, and 
drive the closest bargain with the labourer that cir- 
cumstances may permit. 

Fifth. — That the hope of the labourer rests main- 
ly on the culture of his moral and intellectual faculties. 

Sixth. — That under our present civilization the 
relations of labour and capital must be determined by 
the laws of trade, or supply and demand. 

Seventh. — That hope is entertained, though for 
the most part faintly, of benefit to the labourer from 
co-operation ; depending on his improvement in intel- 
ligence and self-control. 

Eighth. — That no benefit can result from any gov- 
ernment interference or control, other than in main- 
taining justice ; that the organization and prosecution 
of industrial enterprise is most effective under the 
scrutiny and supervision of individual control. 

On these several deductions I remark, First deduc- 
tion — " That under our present civilization, the pro- 
ductions required to supply the wants of men must 
be obtained by the united application of labour and 
capital." 

This implies the co-operation of two parties in 



52 THE QUESTION OF 

production, who come together to arrange the amount 
that shall be paid to the labourer as wages, for his 
part in the production contemplated. In any discus- 
sion of this relation it is necessary to understand the 
characteristics of the respective parties ; for though 
they are in union in respect to production, they evi- 
dently have interests in conflict, however these interests 
may be harmonized to mutual satisfaction. The sim- 
ple fact is, one party furnishes the skill and labour of 
manipulation, and the other the instruments of labor. 
It must be kept in mind, that in the process of 
civilization it has been discovered there are certain 
instruments that greatly increase the efficiency of 
labour. These instruments are produced from the ac- 
cumulations of previous labour, gathered from the sav- 
ings of industry and frugality. The motive for collect- 
ing these instruments is, that they are productive of 
profit or income to the owner. They consist in land, 
buildings, machinery, tools, power to operate the mill, 
raw stock and the wages of labour that must be pro- 
vided before the avails of the product can be realized. 
The capitalist relies on his net product to compensate 
him for the use of his capital and his personal super- 
vision of the business. It is "clear he will not engage 
in industrial enterprise unless he believes there is fair 
prospect of his receiving profits that will be considera- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 53 

bly more than his funds would command on loan at 
interest 

I will endeavour to state the relation of the parties. 
This will involve the " Second deduction." 

In going into an industrial enterprise, the capital- 
ist incurs risk, first, the elements may injure or de- 
stroy his works ; or injury and loss may occur to other 
parties so as to effect his interest indirectly. Secondly, 
various circumstances may affect his production, mak- 
ing it more expensive than he had anticipated. Third, 
the state of the market may change, so that when his 
product is offered for sale, its value may be less than 
he had anticipated, and instead of showing profits, 
may show a loss. All business men know these con- 
tingencies enter into all sound calculations in starting 
an industrial enterprise, especially those of the larger 
class, of which I am here considering, and in which 
the question of labour and capital is particularly in- 
volved. The capitalist will naturally look for at least 
the prospect of profits that will indemnify him against 
the hazard he must take. Some industrial enterprises 
have resulted in large profits to the capital ; but it is 
well known that many prove very unfavorable ; so much 
so that capitalists are cautious in committing their 
funds to this kind of investment, and especially the 
class of large capitalists, who generally prefer to loan 



54 THE QUESTION OF 

on interest, even at a much less rate than would be 
regarded reasonable in industrial enterprises. How- 
ever strong the confidence of the capitalist in the 
profits he anticipates, he must take the risk involved 
in such enterprises. 

In the progress of constructing the works, the 
capitalist has employed much labour ; but now they are 
completed and ready for operation, and he will require 
labour of more or less varied character, to conduct his 
production. This labour he must have, or his mill will 
be unproductive. He knew this before he began his 
enterprise, and based his estimates on what at the 
time was regarded the rate of wages for the work he 
needed. For the further illustration I proceed to con- 
sider the 

Second Deduction — namely, " That the union 
of capital and labour involves a competition between 
the parties, as to the wages and profits for each in 
the same way that pertains to any other transaction 
in exchange/' 

Now, the works having been erected, the parties 
enter on the negotiation for labour. The capitalist 
cannot command the labour without the consent of the 
labourer, and the labourer will insist on the market value 
of his labour. The capitalist has no alternative ; the 
labour he must have or his enterprise must be aban- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 55 

doned as a failure. If he will not pay the market 
price for labour, he has no power to command it. The 
idea involved in this is the dependence of the capitalist 
on the labourers required to operate his production. 
Only under a system of slavery could this be otherwise, 
and such a system does not exist under this government. 
We could not always say this — but thanks be to God ! 
we are now free from legal slavery, that is, personal 
slavery ; and every man has the right to dictate his 
own terms for his services. I am aware of the objec- 
tion that will be urged against this position ; that 
there are circumstances which give one man so 
much power over another, as to compel submission of 
the weaker party. This point I propose to consider 
in the course of my discussions. 

As previously stated, the capitalist has completed 
his works, and is ready to go into operation for the 
contemplated production. The parties that must co- 
operate in the enterprise, having entered into negoti- 
ation for the wages the labourer must have for his 
part in production, they do not discuss the profits 
that shall accrue to the instruments, but the value of 
the labour as established at the time in the labour 
market. It follows, of course, that if the number of 
labourers that seek employment in this particular 
branch of work are numerous, the rate of wages will 



^6 THE QUESTION OF 

be low ; if, on the contrary, they be comparatively few, 
the wages will be high. This is the inevitable condi- 
tion of these parties, and their negotiations will be ad- 
justed or settled on this principle. It is the business 
aspect as resting on the laws of trade, that pertains in 
this, as in all business exchange. The charitable view 
that is sometimes urged, I propose to examine hereafter. 

The rate of wages will be affected by the skill 
required, the severity of the work, its hazards to in- 
juries, and its general influence on health. It is not 
necessary to discuss these at this time, as they are 
all subject to the general law of supply and demand, 
according to their respective influence on the rate of 
wages. 

It is natural and legitimate for each party to con- 
duct this class of negotiation on the same basis of 
interest that controls in all contracts for services. 
Each is his own guardian, naturally and properly, 
and will be prompted to secure the most favourable 
result for himself. If the laws of trade are cheerfully 
accepted, the parties will proceed in harmonious co- 
operation, and the best practicable result in the wages 
and profits will be realized. The only objection that 
I have noticed to this basis of action is, that the 
workman is less independent, and less intelligent than 
the capitalist. Certainly the capitalist cannot be 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. tj 

censured for this, and it is not to the credit of the 
workman that it should be so. If the labourer looks 
fairly at this case, he will see that it would be 
impossible for him to perform the kind of work con- 
templated without the instruments the capitalist has 
provided. If the labourer looks at the subject with 
intelligence, he will see the capitalist of this genera- 
tion was the labourer in the past generation ; and if 
he exercises the same diligence, prudence and frugality, 
he may expect to be the capitalist of the next gener- 
tion, or at least to such an extent as will place him 
in competent independence. I speak particularly of 
this country, where no right or power of entail secures 
family possessions; where everyone is at liberty to 
pursue the branch of labour he prefers, and is secured 
in the full enjoyment of his own earnings. 

It is strictly true that the capitalist has come to 
his position by saving from his earnings. Some 
have reasoned against this, and contended that capital 
has mainly been accumulated by speculation, by 
inheritance, or by unjust and fraudulent means. No 
doubt capitalists have been made by speculative 
operations, and not always just — that fortunes have 
been obtained from inheritance, and that fraud has 
been an instrument of accumulation. What the 
relative proportion in amount of these may be to the 



58 THE QUESTION OF 

total of capital, I have no means of determining, and 
can only estimate them from observation. That from 
inheritance arises mostly from the savings of parents 
or other friends, from their industry. It is no doubt 
true that unscrupulous men do sometimes become 
large capitalists ; but my observation convinces me, 
and I think it will appear so to those who explore 
society, namely, that by far the largest number of our 
capitalists, as well as those who obtain a competent 
independence, commenced their business life with 
little or no means but their industry, intelligence, and 
prudence to depend on. This should be, and will be, 
an encouragement to every industrious, prudent and 
enterprising man. I know from experience what it 
is to be a labouring man, and I most unhesitatingly 
say to every working-man, take the best offer the . 
market will give you, and go to work with confidence 
in your ability to reach the success of the capitalists 
that have gone before you, and with manly effort over- 
come and not succumb to the difficulties that only 
demand a reasonable energy to clear your path ; giving 
no heed to the platform and other literature that sets 
forth your condition as one of impotence and hope- 
lessness, calling for some amelioration that is not 
consistent with your manhood. 

I have been thus particular to show that there is no 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 59 

natural advantage of one over the other, in the negotia- 
tions between the capitalist and the intelligent and 
(as he should be) independent labourer. 

Remarks on my Third Deduction. 

Namely — " That owing to his condition of depend- 
ence, the labourer does not stand in this competition 
on an even basis with the capitalist." 

In the preceding remarks, it will be noticed that 
some reference is had to this point. It maybe gener- 
ally regarded as practically the condition of the work- 
ing people in the class more especially employed in 
the larger establishments of production. So far as 
this is true, it no doubt arises from a necessity of 
obtaining prompt exchange for labour, and the want of 
intelligence and mobility or the part of the labourer. 
The argument in this case is, that the labourer is in 
need for his current subsistence, and therefore com- 
pelled to take what the capitalist may offer. That the 
labourer cannot delay his negotiation to a more 
favourable state of the market, for the reason he has 
starvation before him. While the capitalist, it is pre- 
sumed, can wait for such change in the market as will 
best promote his interest. Now as these parties 
must come together, and as both have interests to 
serve, they cannot long delay on the question of wages 



6 THE QUESTION OF 

unless the enterprise be abandoned. Neither desire 
this, and they will eventually agree on the basis of the 
actual market, if they agree at all. Naturally they are 
on even terms ; at the same time, I think it often hap- 
pens that the capitalist, from his resources in means and 
intelligence, has an advantage in this species of ex- 
change. So far as this may be an evil, it calls loudly 
on the labourer to so cultivate his means and his 
intelligence, as to qualify him to maintain his inde- 
pendence, and secure by manly energy the full market 
value of his services. The labourer is one party 
in the negotiation, and if he fail to secure success, it 
is for him to see the cause of failure to fully obtain 
the value of his services. The market value is all he 
can obtain, and it is for the interest of the workman 
to make the best of this. 

Remarks on my Fourth Deduction. 

Namely — " That the capitalists (with many ex- 
ceptions) are disposed to avail of their advantage, and 
drive the closest bargain with the labourer that 
circumstances may permit." 

In this respect it cannot be doubted there are 
two classes of capitalists. The First class are those 
who conduct themselves towards their working people 
in a spirit of uprightness. They wisely and kindly con- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 6 1 

sider their situation, and fully meet all their engage- 
ments with them. They cannot eschew the fundamen- 
tal principles of business, but will kindly consider any 
untoward condition of their working people, and ex- 
tend such relief and sympathy as they may be able. 
In their intercourse, they will treat their work people 
with a courteous deportment, not failing any occasion 
to say a kind word to encourage and cheer them in 
their work, losing no opportunity to give them good 
advice in relation to their personal affairs. In this the 
capitalists have not only the pleasure arising from such 
course of conduct, but the satisfaction of commanding 
the best class of working people the market may 
afford ; and they may expect the least waste in tools 
and material, and, consequently, the most efficient 
workmanship. In regard to the market value of 
wages, they will look upon the subject with a just 
regard to the interest of the labourers, while they 
exercise a discreet regard to the business aspect of their 
production. They know they cannot neglect the latter 
without ruin to their enterprise. 

The Second Class of Capitalists are those who have 
very little sympathy for their working people. They 
hold themselves aloof from the labourer, and if they 
perchance extend any civility, it will be with an air of 
condescension not pleasant to an American workman. 



6 2 THE QUESTION OF 

Their demeanor will usually indicate a standing quite 
too far above the labourer to admit his self-respect, 
and at times they treat him with a severity not at all 
necessary for any business object. This class regard it 
necessary to be severe, and hold a dignified eminence 
among their work people, as a party dependent on the 
patronage of the capitalist, in obtaining their bread. 
They enter into no sympathy for the consideration of 
those circumstances of hardship that naturally call 
for the aid of kindness. In regard to wages, this class 
hold rigidly to what they regard the business aspect of 
the question, and when there is a plethora in the 
labour market, they are able to command terms 
that are strictly severe on the labourer. It does not 
require argument to show that this class of capitalists 
will not generally obtain the best class of working 
people. They depend on the vigilance of supervision, 
and not so much on the character of the workman, to 
secure favourable results. They generally pay with 
promptness (though sometimes on the truck method) ; 
for the wages is the only motive of the labourer. The 
latter has no inducement as to the fellowship of his 
relations. The administration of this class may be 
strictly just, but certainly will not attach their work 
people, so as to produce any special regard for their 
interest. The labourers will have no particular regard 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 63 

for the success of the enterprise, except so far as it 
promotes their own interest. 

The "first class " of capitalists will appreciate the 
good opinion of the public, as the same will arise from 
their just estimate of uprightness, and their cordial 
fellowship in sympathy for the just and proper rights 
of men. This will naturally draw to them the best 
class of work people. The " second class " of capital- 
ists will not much heed public opinion, though they 
cannot wholly disregard it. They will be compelled 
to accept such workmen as cannot find employment 
with the first class. In any event they will only obtain 
such workmen as, from whatever circumstance, are 
willing to accept conditions of more or less severity, 
and will be constantly exposed to lose the best work- 
men, as they find opportunity for employment on more 
satisfactory terms. 

It is not to be understood the " first class" of cap- 
italists will not govern their affairs mainly with refer- 
ence to the business object of their enterprise. They 
will not lose sight of this, nor is it to the interest of 
the workmen that they should. They know it is in- 
dispensable the business be conducted so as to provide 
both wages and profits, or it will of necessity be aban- 
doned. All intelligent workmen know this, as well as 
the capitalist. 



64 THE QUESTION OF 

The question in regard to the power of the capital- 
ist is not confined to the negotiations between him 
and the labourer, but is equally operative in all his 
transactions in exchange. If he drive a sharp con- 
tract with the labourer, he will be equally sharp in con- 
tracting for materials or the sale of his goods, as he 
may have occasion in the course of general business. 
There is, therefore, no propriety in making this a spe- 
cific question as between labour and capital. Whatever 
there is in this question, is a demonstration of the 
power of capital to secure the most favourable ex- 
change the state of the market will allow. No man 
should complain of this, but rather regard it a stim- 
ulus to pursue those means of intelligent industry and 
prudent management of his affairs which will secure 
it. It must be kept constantly in mind that it has 
been by these means the capitalist has secured the 
advantage of his position ; and what has been done by 
one may be done by others, having the same energy 
and self-control. 

Remarks on my Fifth Deduction. 

Namely — " That the hope of the labourer rests 
mainly on the culture of his moral and intellectual 
faculties.' , 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 65 

There can be no dispute of this. The race of men 
are so constituted, that improvement in any respect 
must result from personal or individual effort. There 
is no other path than this. The institutions that give 
free action to the individual, and maintain the just 
rights of all, offer the best basis for the well-being of 
every one. . Under our free government, the field is 
open, and the means adequate, for the improvement 
of those powers God has given us, to provide for all 
our wants ; and those who improve these powers will 
secure the blessing, and those who do not, have no 
right to complain of those that do. The labourer will 
profit by exercising self-control, and without this, 
there is no hope of rescuing him from a state of de- 
pendence. 

Remarks on my Sixth Deduction. 

Namely— " That under our present civilization, the 
relations of the labourer and the capitalist must be 
determined by the laws of trade, or supply and de- 
mand/' 

Whatever sentimentalists may urge, there is no 
escape from this position. It is a natural law, and 
will not yield to any pleading. The seller may contend 
he cannot afford to sell at less rate, and the buyer that 
he cannot afford to pay the rate demanded. It is ob- 

5 



56 THE QUESTION OF 

vious that numerous circumstances might be offered 
in this debate, of which the respective parties may 
have known very little ; yet they will, notwithstanding, 
refer to and be controlled by the value of the commod- 
ity in the market. This justifies no deception, and 
there may not have been any in the negotiation. The 
simple fact in the case under consideration is, labour 
is a commodity the labourer desires to sell, and must 
be governed by the same law that pertains to other 
property offered for exchange. Its worth is precisely 
what the market will command. It is simply for the 
labourer to decide whether it be for his interest to ac- 
cept the offer that he may have, or look elsewhere for 
a market. On any business basis it is impossible to 
conduct industrial enterprise on any other principle. 

Remarks on my Seventh Deduction. 

Namely — " That hope is entertained, though for 
the most part faintly, of benefit to the labourer from 
co-operation; depending on his improvement in in- 
telligence and self-control." 

I say " faintly," for the authors I have quoted, 
while they seem to regard co-operation as open- 
ing the best prospect to the working class, do not 
disguise their opinion that in the present con- 
dition of our civilization, the labourers in general 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. £y 

have not the moral and intellectual quality neces- 
sary for the successful management of industrial 
enterprise on anything like a large scale, without the 
experience of capitalists for executive, or purely busi- 
ness affairs. In this I think they are substantially 
correct, but not fully so. I have confidence that the 
labourers will rise, to a large extent, to such improve- 
ment of their powers as will give them the full 
benefit of their labour, whether it be by co-operation 
or otherwise. This question will be discussed more 
fully under the consideration of methods and facili- 
ties for the improvement of labourers. 

Remarks on my Eighth Deduction. 

Namely — " That no benefit can result from any 
government interference or control ; that the or- 
ganization and prosecution of industrial enterprise, 
is most effective under the scrutiny of individual 
control." 

There can be no doubt of the soundness of the 
above. It is no part of the function of government 
to meddle with the affairs of individuals, except to 
secure the administration of justice. It is the duty 
of government to protect every man in the rights of 
labour and enterprise, and take care that no wrong 
that may be attempted, shall fail of adjudication on the 



68 THE QUESTION OF 

basis of justice, and that no one shall hold a privilege 
not secured to all. When governments attempt to 
interfere in the affairs of individuals, and dictate as 
to their rights of labour and exchange, they trans- 
cend their functions, and injure all labour and enter- 
prise, and, in fact, vitiate the legitimate duties they 
were established to promote. 

The latter clause in the eighth deduction, namely, 
" That the organization and prosecution of industrial 
enterprise is most effective under the scrutiny of 
individual control," is equally manifest. There can 
be no doubt the organization of labour and the 
administration of the operations of production is best 
done by an individual who has an experimental or 
expert knowledge of the processes of his work, and 
has, or is able to command, the capital required. The 
next best, or second in order of efficiency is, for two or 
three such persons to unite in a co-partnership, and 
by their united capital, industry and skill, conduct 
the process of production. The third in order is the 
incorporation of so considerable a number of mem- 
bers as to require a board of managers to conduct 
their affairs. In the last there is danger of ineffi- 
ciency, and of side issues that are adverse to the joint 
interests, and which are often prosecuted under pre- 
tense of serving the general good of the company. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. fig 

The difficulty in such cases is, the proprietors are not 
in a situation to understand well the methods by 
which their own affairs are conducted, and will mainly 
depend for success on the wisdom they exercise in 
selecting their agents. 

If we leave the department of productive enter- 
prise, and look into affairs necessarily committed to 
government, and trace along up from municipal to 
State and Federal administration, we shall have abun- 
dent evidence, as we ascend from the least. to the 
greatest, of a regular advance in improvidence, waste 
and peculation. The great difficulty in government 
operations is that they are mostly out of the observa- 
tion of those who by taxes pay the expense ; and cun- 
ning men make their living by watching their oppor- 
tunity to prey on the public, through managing rings 
and other processes. But in government affairs we 
have no alternative — we must commit the work to be 
done to representatives, and in their intelligence and 
honesty we must confide. In this we are sometimes 
successful and obtain faithful servants ; but it is certain 
we often fail. We have no such necessity in the busi- 
ness of production. 

In view of the fact that the great majority of man- 
kind must obtain their subsistence from the wages of 
labour, it is of great importance to investigate the 



j THE QUESTION OF 

plans or methods that have been proposed or may be 
proposed to ameliorate the circumstances and as far 
as possible remove the obstacles to their happiness. 

In any view of the labour question, we must not 
lose sight of the fact that there is a large amount of 
the productions of exchangeable commodities that do 
not require more capital for their favourable production 
than may be commanded by a single workman, or the 
combination of two or three in working partnership. 
So far as this extends, there is no contest between 
labour and capital. Enterprises formed is this way, 
with small comparative beginnings, frequently grow 
from the industry and prudence of the men, and so by 
degrees enlarging the scale of production from their 
savings, to ultimately reach large dimensions, employ- 
ing labour as in all large industries. Such move out 
of the class we are particularly considering. This dis- 
cussion having special reference to that class of work- 
ing people who have little or no instrumentalities to 
aid their labour, and must depend for these on the 
capitalist, I now proceed to consider the methods 
that are looked to for their benefit. I commence this by 
some general remarks, with a view to show the condi- 
tion of the respective parties, after which I propose to 
take a view of such measures as have been proposed 
to improve the condition of working people. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. y 1 

Remarks on the general Condition of the 
Parties. 

In all the affairs of business there is more or less 
of competition, especially with those of the same class. 
Every producer aims to secure a profitable market for 
his product. This is a wholesome struggle, bringing 
out the best results — tending greatly to the public good, 
in supplying the market with the best and cheapest 
articles required for consumption. This competition 
calls out and puts in operation the best method of pro- 
duction. It is the same in the labour as in the com- 
pleted product. It embraces not only production, but 
transport, exchange, and professional service. In all 
these, labour, skill and capital are combined, and the 
best result is obtained when these are conducted in 
harmony, and are most eminent in degree. All exer- 
cise their powers and facilities in view of the law of 
supply and demand, depending each on his ability to 
meet the demand on as favourable terms as his neigh- 
bour. This is legitimate competition, and calls out the 
most energetic administration of affairs. Though it 
be a struggle, it can hardly be called a conflict. Each 
party has brought into combination the skill, labour 
and capital required in the production of their respect- 
ive fabrics, and the contest between them is the nat- 
ural result of a principle of general acceptance, that 



y 2 THE QUESTION OF 

men strive to do the best they can for themselves. So 
far, the workmen and the capitalists are side by side 
in a common interest in the articles they produce. 

The workmen and the capitalists will each desire 
for their fabric such a control In the market as will 
sustain the cost of production. The contest between 
them is not to enhance or reduce the price of the 
article, but for the ratio each shall receive of the pro- 
duct. It is obvious the market price will be regula- 
ted by the action of others, as well as their own. It 
will be seen that practically there is a peculiarity in the 
most usual demonstrations of this struggle, that does 
not hold in the general competitions of business. The 
fallacy of the struggle is in the attempt to disregard 
the laws of demand and supply; an effort that can 
only embarrass and tend to produce mischief. Here 
we have the parties, workmen and capitalists engaged 
in the production of the same article, and any antag- 
onism that defeats negotiation is likely to prove in- 
jurious to both. 

The rights of parties in this conflict are as readily 
discovered as in any other competition. The two have 
each his own rights. The workman has his skill and 
labour, and the capitalist his capital and administra- 
tive ability ; each party has equal right to make the 
most of his own that the market will afford. If capi- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL- 73 

tal is abundant, it must yield to the laws of trade and 
be content with a corresponding profit or interest. 
The same holds good with the workman ; he must be 
controlled by the same laws of demand and supply. In 
so far as the workman has command of sufficient capi- 
tal to provide for the instrumentality of his own pro- 
duction, no conflict in this respect can arise. Here it 
is seen how important it is that the workman have so 
much capital as will suffice to make his labour most 
productive. This position may be reached in many 
branches of industry by a young man who has the 
self-control to make the best of his situation. Such 
do their own work, and hold their own instruments, 
securing to themselves both the wages and profits of 
their production. 

The importance of this question of conflict arises 
in the cases where large capital, beyond the ordinary 
means of individual workmen, is required to provide 
the outlay, and carry on current operations by the 
most economical process. It is not material in such 
case whether the capital be furnished by one or by the 
co-operation of several persons. The necessity of the 
case is, the fabric to be produced is of a nature that 
requires for its most economical production, a largo 
outlay in lands, mills, machinery, raw stock and wages. 
These being provided, it is necessary workmen be 



74 THE QUESTION OF 

employed to manage the machinery, and thus bring out 
the anticipated result in the production of the fabric. 
Here are clearly two parties ; one would not produce 
"without the other. Each has his right of contract, 
and a proper motive for securing such result as the 
market may warrant. 

The capitalist predicates his enterprise on the laws 
of trade ; based on the ordinary estimates of his pow- 
er to produce an article that will yield a suitable return 
for his outlay. In this estimate he considers the 
rate of wages he must pay, on the basis of the market 
value of the labour he will require. This must be con- 
sidered a sound method of proceeding. If the capitalist 
is an experienced manufacturer, his estimates will be 
more reliable than if he depend on the advice of an 
expert he cannot fully know, and who may not thor- 
oughly understand the details of the proposed work, 
or he may have some interest not consistent with that 
of the capitalist. In either case it is subject to con- 
tingencies that no sagacity may foresee ; a risk that 
must be taken by the capitalist in all the larger classes 
of production that engage the enterprise of men. 

The outlay being made — the mills, machinery and 
tools ready, the workmen enter on the work of operating 
the mill, having made engagement on certain terms, 
which, in view of the labour market, they regard as their 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 75 

interest to accept, and the mill has gone into operation. 
By and by, as occasion happens, the workmen become 
dissatisfied with their wages or rate of pay. When 
they engaged they no doubt considered their agree- 
ment as the best method of finding a market for their 
skill and labour. So far as their engagement extend- 
ed, they were bound in law and equity to fulfil and sat- 
isfy their contract, same as all men are bound by their 
contracts. On the other hand, there was the same 
right of the workmen to demand of the employer 
the full compliance of the contract on his part. 

No doubt any one has the right on the completion 
of his contract to seek other engagement if desired. 
To this no one can object ; and if his workmen leave 
him, the capitalist must find others to supply their 
places. There are several causes that may properly 
induce a workman to leave his occupation in the es- 
tablishment in which he had been engaged, and if his 
contract is fulfilled, no one has a right to complain, 
as it is clearly his right to obtain the best market he 
can find for his skill and labour. Nor is the case 
changed if all the workmen in the mill take the same 
course. They may do this on a question of wages, or 
in reference to some regulation of rules or method of 
business. Having completed their engagements, they 
are at liberty to leave the work and seek employment 



76 THE QUESTION OF 

where it promises to be more satisfactory to them- 
selves. 

Thus far, there is no proper controversy — each 
party has exercised his legitimate right. But if the 
workman has taken advantage of some peculiar cir- 
cumstance whereby the employer is thrown into un- 
usual embarrassment, then he is wrong, though he 
may not have violated the letter of his engagement. 
For instance, the employer may have made contracts 
for his fabric that he would not have done had he 
known of the intention of his workmen to leave him ; 
and their act in this case w r ould be regarded as an 
effort to coerce him to do what would be under his 
contract a losing business. This would be a moral 
wrong on the part of the workmen, if they had given 
no notice ; and though the owner may have no rem- 
edy, he will feel that he has not been fairly treated. A 
further circumstance may influence this question : the 
workman may consider the outlay in the mill will be 
unprofitable, or a serious loss to the owner, unless it 
be operated, and that he will prefer to run it on very 
small or no profit, rather than have it idle. This may 
bring the employer to consider if he has not been 
mistaken in his enterprise. But this cannot be re- 
called, and if it have any influence, it will probably be 
to warn him against extension of his works, and oth- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 77 

ers from embarking in similar enterprise. If there 
was no remedy, the interest of both capital and labour 
would be injured by such controversy, as tending to 
arrest enterprise. 

If, however, the capitalist has gone into the work 
with an intelligent understanding of the subject, he 
probably will not abandon his enterprise. If the work- 
men he had employed leave him, he will be compelled 
to look about the market, and if he has conducted his 
operations with discretion, will find others who will 
probably be very ready to fill their places. He will 
know the value of labour in the market rests on the 
same basis that controls the price of fabrics ; both 
equally depending on the one law of supply and de- 
mand ; and this law will not only be respected, but 
control, whatever any man may do or claim. It will 
therefore only be a question of time for a new set of 
men to be provided. This state of things will never- 
theless be more or less a damage to the capitalist or 
owner of the mill, and tend to discourage enterprise 
in the production that may be fabricated. But there 
is no escape from this contingency. At times the 
workmen, in order to correct what they regard a 
wrong, resort to a strike as a remedy. 



^8 THE QUESTION OF 

Characteristics of a Strike. 

The strike, if general, will probably work an evil to 
the workman in most cases, as the derangement of 
business will usually be a damage to both parties. It 
is productive of a suspension of both wages and 
profits, that cannot be resumed until the difficulty is 
adjusted. It is a condition of things that rarely hap- 
pens, without imprudent proceedings on one side or the 
other. 

Unfavorably, or perhaps I may say unfortunately, 
this is not the whole of what is usually termed a 
strike. If it were, the evil to business would be far 
less than contemplated by the striking or disbanded 
workmen. It often, and most generally, happens the 
disbanded workmen do all in their power to prevent 
others from supplying their places This no doubt 
arises largely from the fact that they do not well under- 
stand the laws of trade, or the laws of society, by which 
individual rights can be maintained. The workmen 
have a perfect right to say to others — the wages are too 
low, or the rules unreasonable ; but any step of coercion, 
by violence or intimidation, is a rebellion, not only 
against the laws of trade, but also against the laws of 
society. For one set of men to say to another, you 
shall not work except on our terms, and so interfere 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. jg 

with the interest of the second and third parties (there 
are two parties wronged), is, especially to the obstructed 
workman, an oppressive tyranny. In so far as such 
measures are effectual, the workman is restrained of 
his legitimate right to sell his skill and labour on such 
terms as he regards his interest. It will readily be 
perceived, this produces a conflict with the rights and 
interest of society, who are not only entitled to their 
rights of labour, but also to the protection of their 
interest in all that relates to a free commercial activity 
in both capital and labour. Consequently the govern- 
ment here steps in, and restrains from all proceed- 
ings of violence or intimidation that disturb or 
infringe on the rights of others — jeopardize the peace 
of society, or in any way interfere with the legiti- 
mate working of commercial and political freedom. 
The laws of trade and of civilization are equally to be 
maintained against any such anarchy and oppression 
as would result from the tyrannical power by which 
one man, or one set of men, should be able to 
say to another— you shall not work, except as I 
dictate. 

Working-men are generally in favour of freedom and 
the just rights of men. They revolt against the power 
that would deprive them of these, from whatever 
despotic source of authority it may come ; and certainly 



gO THE QUESTION OF 

they should not exercise it against their fellow-work- 
men. 

Strikes among working-men, of the kind referred 
to, are simply an effort to counteract the laws of trade ; 
and so is every device to secure an advantage by any 
sort of monopoly. In most cases they will be attended 
by loss, both to workmen and employer. No well- 
regulated industry ever allows a strike to succeed in 
its purpose. In view of any change in the market, 
intelligent business men will regulate the wages they 
pay on the basis of supply and demand ; and in view 
of any cause likely to produce dissatisfaction, will 
timely adjust their affairs to meet the circumstances 
that may indicate a change in the labour market. A 
strike may arise from a stringent or oppressive way 
of the employer ; or the strike may arise from a 
demand of the workmen that is inconsistent with 
the condition of the market for labour and the pro- 
duct of their labour. Obviously the product is 
affected by the cost of the necessary labour. 

After wages and regulations of work, there is an- 
other and very unreasonable cause for strikes — that 
one workman is paid higher wages than another in the 
same department. It is notorious, that some work- 
men are worth more than others on the same kind of 
work ; and it is not only unjust the superior workman 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, 8 1 

should be deprived of the value of his labour, but 
equally unreasonable inferior workmen should be paid 
the same wages as the superior. A skilful workman 
who performs his work faithfully, will rarely have 
occasion to resort to any other means of redress for 
any dissatisfaction than to signify to some other 
establishment that he is ready to engage with them 
for his services ; while a different sort of work- 
man will aim to advance his position or wages by a 
strike. 

There is doubtless another side to this question. 
The same motive of self-interest that leads to a strike 
among workmen, may, and no doubt does at times, 
induce employers to pursue a course towards their 
workmen that is more or less stringent and oppressive. 
Under such circumstances it is the right of the work- 
men to devise such measures as promise relief. It 
may be there is difficulty in doing this. Any diffi- 
culty will be increased by the dependence of the men 
on their wages for current subsistence. This should 
impress the importance of habits of economy as a 
means of independence. It is obvious if the work- 
man be dependent, he may not be able, without suf- 
fering, to suspend work until he can find it with an 
employer who will be satisfactory. This calls atten- 
tion to 

6 



82 THE QUESTION OF 

Trades Unions 

By which contributions are made for the support of 
workmen on a strike. In this, reliance is had on 
the disposition of the owner to yield, in order to avoid 
the loss he would incur from his unemployed mill. 
This can only succeed in cases where the owner has 
failed to correctly understand the laws of supply and 
demand in the labour market. It is impossible that 
work should go on, independent of this rule, for any 
considerable time. This is evident on the least reflec- 
tion, as the ruin of the owner would be inevitable if 
the wages could not be sustained by the market value 
of the fabric produced. Contributions to the Union 
must be voluntary, and of course limited, and in- 
stances have occurred in which a strike has been con- 
tinued for months, and with all the aid the Union could 
furnish, caused much suffering to the men out of em- 
ployment. 

in the course of my life I have known many and 
some very severe strikes among workmen, and have 
in no instance known one to succeed when a proper 
attention on the part of the employer was given to 
the law above stated. But if the employer has been 
unreasonable in respect to those laws, he may find it 
necessary to modify his practice. In such case, it is 



— LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 83 

very probable the strikers will gain their object, and the 
owner realize a loss that naturally results from his 
indiscreet management. On the other hand, the dis- 
creet owner will allow his mill to be idle, rather than 
run it at a loss for any considerable time. The Union 
referred to can only depend on voluntary contribu- 
tions, and at best can afford but a scanty support even 
for a moderate length of time. It should be improved 
by the contributing workmen, to cultivate those habits 
of saving that may give substantial improvement to 
their affairs, when no such draft is made on their 
earnings. 

There is obviously a direct loss to both parties, 
in the operation of a strike ; and it is clearly the part 
of wisdom to exercise every practicable measure to pre- 
vent it. Each party has an interest in this. To do it, 
it is only necessary to fairly consider the situation or 
circumstances that control. Neither party can be justi- 
fied in taking a position inconsistent with this. 
Both capital and labour have respectively a righjt to 
their earnings, and these must be referred to the laws 
of trade, on the basis of existing markets ; a reference 
that eventually must prevail, whatever course may be 
pursued by these parties. 

Difficulties sometimes arise from the varying cir- 
cumstances of production, as when an establishment, 



8 4 THE QUESTION OF 

similar to others in its work, has a specialty in the 
production of certain articles, for which it is peculiarly 
adapted, or has the protection of a patent, that gives 
the control of the market. Under these circumstances 
the mill may pay a higher rate than the usual wages. 
Now the workmen in mills that do not have such ad- 
vantage are very likely to take the one that has as a 
standard, and refuse to work unless at the same rate. 
The peculiar establishment may be able to employ 
only a small portion of the men who do this or analo- 
gous work, and consequently the larger portion can 
only obtain such wages as may be warranted in works 
of more general character, where the special advan- 
tages are not enjoyed. It may be the specialty cannot 
employ a fourth part of that class of workwen, and con- 
sequently three fourths will be able to earn only such 
wages as can be afforded on general work of that class. 
It is therefore unreasonable to insist on the same 
basis of wages as may be paid by the specialty. The 
product of the goods made must determine the wages. 
It is further to be observed, that in such cases the 
specialty usually obtains the best workmen for their 
class of work — men whose actual w T orth is above the 
average. 

There can be no doubt this, as all other affairs of 
business, must be adjusted by the law of supply and 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL 85 

demand. The sentiment, that labour is worth so 
much, or more or less, is without foundation. It is 
worth just what it will command in the market, same 
as any other commodity. There is no other philos- 
ophy than this. The benevolent idea that wages 
should be such as to yield a fair support, is necessarily 
indefinite, and has little or no application in the com- 
merce of men. Business is one thing and charity 
another. Nor would the charitable view comport with 
the dignity of labour, or lead to any other than the 
pauper, or semi-pauper plan which no able-bodied 
American citizen should respect, or propose for his 
support. It is, moreover, totally unnecessary in this 
country, where every man has the right of labour, and 
the right to choose the kind he regards most for his 
interest in all the variety of labour that constitutes 
the instrumentality by which most, if not all the 
wealth or property of the country has been gathered. 
Let no man in a free country speak diminutively of the 
power of labour, but bear in mind, that most of our 
capitalists, large and small, began to gather, and con- 
tinued to gather, by savings from their labour. 

Why then should the workmen be dissatisfied 
with the capitalist? Consider the question on its real 
merits. Suppose, then, there were no men that ac- 
cumulated capital ; from whence, then, would be found 



86 THE QUESTION OF 

the means to build mills, supply machinery, raw stock 
and wages ? If there were none that acquired capital, 
there would be none to provide these instruments, 
by which labour finds its principal employment — its 
absence from society would necessarily throw us back 
to the primitive order of things, and both labour and 
population would be greatly reduced. Even the handi- 
craft arts would feel this, as well as the higher or 
more complicated orders of occupation. There can 
be no doubt the enterprise of capital is the main 
feature that enlarges the field, and consequently the 
demand for labour, and this increases its market 
value. At the same time, the labourer has his share 
of the benefits that flow from the more efficient and 
economical production that arises from the instru- 
ments that capital is able to put into the hands of labour. 

If the non-capitalist has neglected or lost his 
opportunity to acquire capital by any want of educa- 
tion or self-control, he should be careful to see that 
his son does not lose it. 

No doubt there is an advantage in the owner- 
ship of capital or property sufficient to secure an 
independent occupation ; and this is the very reason 
that induced the system of self-control, of industry and 
frugality by which it has been acquired by the capital- 
ist. There can be no just ground for complaint on 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. gy 

the part of those that did not acquire it. They pre- 
ferred a course of indulgence that was incompatible 
with such result ; and after the habit of using the 
earnings of all the powers they employed in various 
and unprofitable sources of present gratification, it is 
clearly unreasonable for them to complain of those 
who had the wisdom and prudence to control and so 
regulate their desires as to reach the enviable condi- 
tion of the capitalist and other independent holders of 
property. 

It is charged that the holders of property are 
sometimes oppressive. No doubt this is true, and 
the mam reason may be found in the fact that so 
large a proportion of men are unwilling to exercise 
the self-control that is necessary to acquire property. 
If all were industrious and frugal, there would be very 
little of the dependence that gives capital undue 
power. Instead of concentrating, capital would be 
more diffused, more abundant, and interest and profits 
on funds would be reduced. Under existing circum- 
stances the general charge of oppression is not well 
founded ; for in most cases the labourer receives the 
full rate of wages the market will command, and is 
paid at short intervals out of the funds of the capital- 
ist, before the latter can realize from the sale of his 
product, and often months in advance. 



88 THE QUESTION OF 

No just government will allow one citizen to op- 
press another, whoever that citizen be. The govern- 
ment takes no measures to require parties to engage 
in contract ; that under law is one of the inalienable 
rights of men ; but after the contract is made, the gov- 
ernment will see that its conditions are enforced. 
This is one of the great duties of government ; without 
which civilization could not exist. Take another 
branch in commercial affairs as an illustration of this 
principle : — A set of men undertake to control the 
market in the article of flour — they buy up all the 
flour they can reach, and set their own price on it, and 
none can interfere — they have so far exercised a legal 
power. But if some party in the community has flour 
not controlled by the forestallers, or monopolists, and 
offers the sale at lower rates, and the monopolists 
should endeavour to coerce him to hold his flour at the. 
same rate the monopoly dictated — would any commu- 
nity submit to this ? In such case all will say, — the 
government must interfere and prevent such tyranny. 
This is precisely analogous to the workman who seeks 
to coerce and obstruct his fellow-workman in the pur- 1 
suit of his legitimate right to make such contract for 
his skill and labour as he regards his interest. 

The labourer is free, and under no obligation to 
obey the decree of the union — the government will 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 89 

protect him. This is so obviously necessary to secure 
individual freedom and the just rights of men, that 
open coercion is not often practised. The proceedings 
therefore to enforce this kind of tyranny will be (as 
most usual) by threats, so made as to evade legal cog- 
nizance, by attacks on the person of the workman, 
under cover of darkness, on his way home, or in some 
position of unseen or defenceless condition. This is 
rebellion against society; and it is a humiliation to 
believe there are working-men in this free country that 
can be guilty of a proceeding which only befits those 
who seek darkness to hide their transactions, or that 
an honest workman will follow the wake of the crim- 
inal who preys on the rights of society, by seeking 
the obscurity of night to hide his transactions, and all 
in an effort to counteract the free action of the laws 
on which industry and society rest. If such proceed- 
ings could succeed, the foundation of social order 
would be broken, and anarchy and confusion reign. 
No stable basis would remain on which industry could 
rest ; no inducements to acquire its instruments, and 
industry would necessarily be prostrated and civiliza- 
tion arrested. 

The safety of order and society rests on the fact 
that there are several classes in society that would 
oppose such result. First, the capitalist — Second, men 



g THE QUESTION OF 

of independent competence in property — Third, those 
who practice industry and economy, with a view to 
reach one of the two preceding classes. All these, and 
others that might be mentioned, are too much inter- 
ested in maintaining the order of civilized society to 
allow the anarchy, confusion and tyranny that would 
break up the law of free commercial activity, and lead 
us back to barbarism — where no law would protect the 
weak, and no enterprise enlarge the basis of produc- 
tive industry. Probably the coercing Trades Unions 
or strikers do not see this tendency ; for I am sure if 
they did a large proportion of them would hesitate to 
proceed on a course so fraught with danger to every 
interest connected with our civilization, which to 
an American working-man should be invaluable. 

When men are oppressed by arbitrary and des- 
potic government, we can see some excuse for the 
violent men who hope to gain, though it may be through 
confusion and anarchy ; but even under such circum- 
stances their success is usually far below, if in any 
considerable degree they reach, their expectations. 

If in any respect men desire to be free, they must 
be able to govern themselves. Their own passions 
must be brought into subjection to reason and sense; 
and they must learn to extend the same freedom to 
others they seek and claim for themselves. In short, 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. gj 

to cultivate a love and respect for the right — the only 
freedom worth having — in truth there is no other. 
The freedom men sometimes claim of doing as they 
please, and at the same time of compelling others to do 
as they dictate, is the oppressive tyranny of a despot, 
whoever claims it ; and should be abhorred by every 
American working-man who raises his hand and voice 
in support of the right and dignity of labour. 

In this country labour is free to command the 
market, same as any commodity, however produced. 
No one is privileged (except in so far as that fallacy 
called protection to labour has prevailed) ; even capital 
is, in the main, only a product of labour, beginning with 
small or no material means, and there is no proper 
reason why all (barring exceptional cases) should not be 
capitalists, or at least reach to a comfortable degree of 
independence. Absolute independence is not supposed, 
for no such case exists. We are all, more or less, in 
various ways dependent on our fellows ; but the 
independence which gives the instruments of labour, 
and the power of our situation to command a supply 
of our reasonable wants, is what is intended. 

Perhaps it may be a delicate matter to discuss the 
cause of so great disparity as we find to exist in the 
condition of men. But the wound can only be cured 
by a thorough probing. The question that first 



q 2 THE QUESTION OF 

presents itself for consideration is — why is it that 
men starting on the same platform, reach such 
different results ? Some attaining conditions of 
comfort and affluence, while others struggle through 
life, barely securing a scanty subsistence ? There 
must be cause for this. Doubtless the variety in 
natural ability, and the opportunities of life, are causes 
of various degrees of success. But these only account 
for the degrees in which some obtain a competence 
and others large wealth. They leave a large class of 
dependent men. How shall their condition be 
accounted for ? Does it not result from ignorance, 
uncontrolled appetite and passion, tending inevitably 
to the improvidence that destroys all prospect of 
saving even the instruments of their simplest occupa- 
tion ? Is there no remedy ? I believe there is. Edu- 
cation has shown its power for this, in the large num- 
bers that have succeeded, and have given strength to 
our civilization by which we have established Institu- 
tional law, and the order of social being : I therefore 
look to education— -mental, moral and religious — as the 
hope of reducing this class, until there shall be none 
left, save 3uch as by natural imbecility are incompe- 
tent to reach a condition of independence. Mental 
education is of prime value ; but moral and religious is 
necessary to cultivate respect for the rights of others, 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. g^ 

indispensable for a just and free government, and for 
the subjugation of the appetites and passions to their 
useful and proper purposes of life. 

A Christian community, well instructed in the 
cardinal principles of their religion, will cultivate 
industry and frugality, and steadily improve in their 
material as well as their moral well-being. This is 
corroborated by the experience of those Christian 
communities that have observed and practised the 
duties and principles of the religion introduced into 
the world by Jesus Christ. Such people are not 
found in the seats of dissipation, wasting their time 
and means in idle conviviality. It is the hope of the 
friends of a true education, that its influence will 
subdue ignorance and increase the power of self-con- 
trol, and so lead to the industry, prudence and economy 
that is productive of material and moral well-being. 
It certainly must be relied on as one at least of the 
great pillars that sustain the social fabric, and tend 
to the diminution of the dependent class of men. 

This is a great thing to hope and work for. The 
development of a true education would greatly increase 
the product of skill, labour and capital, and all men be 
better sheltered, fed and clothed ; and be surrounded 
with the means of mental, moral and religious culture, 
greatly adding to the individual and social happiness 
of men. 



94 THE QUESTION OF 

The wages is not the whole of " Trades Unions." 
The " Unions " extend their operations to the rules and 
manner of work, in such a way as to diminish the 
quantity that may be done in regard to the instruments- 
that shall be used, and also as to the locality from 
whence materials may be had. 

Professor Cairnes has quoted from Mr. Thornton 
(the latter an advocate for measures of amelioration 
to the labourer) some of the rules of the " Union." 
On page 258, " Political Economy," he quotes : "At 
Manchester this combination is particularly effective, 
preventing any brick made beyond a radius of four 
miles from entering the city. ,, . . . . " The vagaries 
of the Lancashire brickmakers are fairly paralleled by 
the masons of the same country." . . . . " The York- 
shire masons, however, will not allow Yorkshire stone 
to be brought into their district if worked on more 
than one side. All the rest of the working, — the edge- 
ing and jointing, — they insist in doing themselves, 
though they thereby add thirty-five per cent to its 
price." . ..." A master mason at Ashton obtained 
some stone ready polished." .... "His men, how- 
ever, in obedience to the rules of the club, refused to 
fix it until the polished part had been defaced and 
they had polished it again by hand, though not so 
well as at first." . . . . " The Manchester bricklayers ' 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. g$ 

association have a rule providing that any man found 
running, or working beyond a regular speed, shall be 
fined," &c, " as also shall be any man working short- 
handed, without man for man." .... "During the 
building of the Manchester law court, the bricklayers 1 
labourers struck because they were desired to wheel 
brick instead of carrying them on their shoulders/' 
More might be quoted from the rules of the " Union," 
but the above is sufficient to show the policy of certain 
working-men in this matter of " Union." 

The preceding are from English " Unions." I do 
not know if American Unions go to the same extent, 
but they do not discard the features of the English 
Unions, and in some respects adopt them. 

American working-men have made considerable 
effort to obtain the enactment of laws regulating the 
time of a day's work. Nothing has been better settled 
by the experience of mankind, than that government 
interference with the business affairs of men is always 
bad, and especially so for labouring men. Except in 
the case of children, in order to protect them from 
the cupidity of their guardians and employers, no 
government interference has proved a benefit to the 
labourer, beyond that of protecting him in his just 
rights of labour and enterprise. 

Our working-men have petitioned government to 



q5 the question of 

prevent the employment of convict labour, where it 
may be supposed to come in competition with the 
industries of society. From the necessities of their 
condition the convicts, if employed at all advantage- 
ously, their work must be such as can be done in a 
shop. If they make hats, the hatter complains ; if they 
make cabinet ware, then the cabinetmaker complains ; 
if shoes, the shoemaker complains, and so of every 
trade that must work in a shop. Listening to these 
petitions from various classes of citizens, the Legisla- 
ture of the State of New York authorized measures 
to employ the convicts on mining works, a kind very 
unsuitable for convicts — all which has proved very 
unprofitable to the State. The obvious purpose of 
the State, in employing convicts in the production of 
useful commodities, is to make them earn their sub- 
sistence, and at the same time improve their habits of 
industry. If the convict cannot be so employed as 
to earn his subsistence, he must be supported at 
public expense, by taxation on ail classes of society. 
The main question is, shall this labour be annihilated ? 
If this be answered in the affirmative, then certainly 
so much labour of the country must be lost So far 
as this could prevail, its influence on the cost of pro- 
duction would be to make goods dearer. In other 
words, to diminish the products of industry. If these 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 07 

convicts had not been criminals, their labour would 
probably have been more formidable as competitors 
in the labour market, than it is in their condition of 
convicts. If in this matter the theory of the working- 
men is correct, then it is their interest the number of 
convicts be increased, and so take out of the ranks of 
industry the largest number the State may be able to 
support in idleness or unproductive labour. This would 
be absurd, but it is the logical conclusion of their theory. 
It is apparent the undisguised policy of " Trades 
Unions" is to impair the results, or to make labour 
as impotent as possible. If then there be any such 
thing as a " wages fund," their policy leads to its de- 
struction as rapidly as possible. They probably do not 
see the logical results of their rules and regulations. 
If they refuse the use of a wheelbarrow, and compel 
bricks to be carried by hand, they cannot be expected 
to check their operations until the use of all agents 
in transportation is discontinued, and all burdens 
borne on the shoulders of men ; and instead of horses, 
the plough must be drawn by gangs of men — the 
natural agents, as steam and water must be laid aside 
and the machinery (if any) be propelled by manual 
labour. Such a result it is impossible to reach, though 
it is the logical conclusion from the premises advoca- 
ted by " Trades Unions." 

7 



q8 the question of 

Look carefully at the principles of " Trades Union/' 
If they are correct, then certainly any invention or 
improvement that renders labour more effective is an 
impediment, and consequently an injury to the working- 
man — all natural agents that reduce manual labour 
should be discarded, and the greatest possible amount 
of manual labour should be bestowed on any fabric 
required for the use of men. Can any one suppose 
this would benefit labour ? If it could, then the opin- 
ion of mankind has been greatly at fault, and barbar- 
ism is to be preferred to civilization ; or to depend for 
sustenance on the chase and the gathering of fish and 
natural fruit, is better for labouring men than the well- 
ordered industries of civilization. 

Trades Unions on Apprenticeship. 

The policy of Trades Unions in regard to appren- 
ticeship is designed to restrict the number in any 
branch of mechanics. The manifest object of this is 
to limit the number, in order to increase the rate of 
wages. That is, that there be the least number of 
men in any branch that may suffice to command the 
highest rate of wages the industry may afford to pay. 
It is manifest this course will tend to reduce the 
amount of work in any industry, and increase the cost 
of what may be done, destroying the benefit of com- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. qq 

mercial freedom, and so increasing the cost of goods 
to the community. If it could be made to apply to 
all industries, the workman in one department would 
be compelled to pay for the goods he needed from the 
other departments as much advance as he gained in 
his own, and he could obtain no benefit from this arti- 
ficial obstruction. If the workman looks at this thing 
in its true light, he will see, that in order to benefit 
himself, all goods except his own product should be 
free, so that while he obtains favour no other goods 
that he needs should be restricted to this narrow 
monopolizing system. 

The policy of the Union is, that no mechanic in 
the association is allowed to take an apprentice, except 
as may be directed by the Union. It may be the 
interest of some member of the Union to employ an 
apprentice, and a candidate may be in waiting for such 
employment. But if the Union say no, these parties 
are prohibited from exercising a natural right. 

No man can properly be compelled to take an 
apprentice, for this is a matter he must consider in 
view of his own interest. It is quite necessary the 
candidate present adequate inducement. This is all 
a matter of business freedom, and in every rational 
view should be regarded as conclusively settling the 
action of the parties. Now, the Union steps in and 



I0O THE QUESTION OF 

says to the mechanic, there are enough now in your 
trade, and according to the rules of the Union, you 
cannot take another. Here the just rights of two 
parties are broken down by a monopoly, that so far 
as it goes, destroys commercial freedom. Nor are 
these injured parties the only interest involved in this 
transaction of the Union ; for it is manifest, the rights 
of the public are trampled upon, in a most despotic 
manner. If freedom is worth anything to the work- 
ing-man, he should consider, if this principle of the 
Union is not an arbitrarv means for its destruction. 
Certainly no right can be more important to the indi- 
vidual and to society, than that which leaves every 
man free to make such contract for his services as he 
regards his interest. No man in a free country can 
question this position as the basis of commercial free- 
dom. 

To this the Unionist says, No, you shall enter no 
engagement except at our dictation. How does this 
differ from the flour, or any other arbitrary monopoly, 
that aims to break down the barriers of commercial 
freedom, and in its place establish a despotic rule, 
which goes directly to the subversion of civil liberty, 
breaking down the benign principle that is the only 
security for the rights of man, and the free activity of 
industrial economy. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. I0I 

The whole theory will be discarded by intelligent 
working-men, as inconsistent with their happiness, and 
a manly regard for the power and dignity of un- 
shackled labour. The system of " Trades Union " fails 
to perceive the true method by which the working- 
man has been, and will be, elevated to the character 
and benefits he may reach by a manly exercise of his 
powers of production. If, therefore, he allow himself 
to slide into the dependent class, it will be for the rea- 
son, that he has failed to properly improve his powers. 

Methods have been proposed by which, in some 
way, it is aimed to show how labour and capital may 
be combined to effect a more equitable ratio between 
wages and profits. I propose to consider some of these 
propositions. 

Community Plan. 

This has been followed in several instances, and in 
some with great perseverance and well-intended pur- 
pose to improve the advantages of the labourers. So 
far as I understand this method, the community is an 
association, composed of a body of men and women, 
who place themselves under a mutual association, in 
which their labour and their property becomes a com- 
mon stock. They labour in common, and have a common 
support out of the aggregate product of their labour 



102 THE QUESTION OF 

and capital. In these communities all are professedly 
on equal terms, under the regulations of the associa- 
tion. Here the labour is supposed to be more efficient, 
and the supplies had on better terms or more cheaply ; 
and as a consequence, the material wants of the asso- 
ciation better supplied, than they could be by indi- 
vidual enterprise and labour. 

These communities have been organized and main- 
tained for considerable time, and their characteristics 
pretty fairly developed. In some cases they have been 
placed on the basis of some religious principle, and in 
others resting solely on the basis of material interest. 
Some prohibit sexual intercourse, and by this means 
avoid the care and expense of raising children. Others 
allow, and are supposed to practice, promiscuous sexual 
commerce, which brings them into the category of the 
brothel. In both these cases they are at war with the 
institution of the family, as established by the Creator ; 
thus breaking up the original order, and sapping the 
foundation of the marriage institution, which most 
eminently sustains public and private virtue. 

It is believed such communities, by their united 
skill and industry, produce many useful articles, at a 
moderate cost, and sustain their material support in 
a good degree of abundance. They move along in 
routine on the orders, and depend on the care and 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. IO j 

providence of their ruling elders. No brilliancy of 
mind is expected in these associations. We do not 
expect to see them produce a Pallissy, a Watt, an Ark- 
wright, a Whitney, a Fulton, a Morse, or any of simi- 
lar character who form the host of distinguished men, 
who by their individual skill and perseverance have 
wrought out and brought into operation those vast 
improvements in the arts that minister to the wants 
of men, and have given better food, clothing and shel- 
ter to the civilized world. 

It was stated the community hold themselves as 
all on a footing of equality. In this respect it is to be 
observed, the sentiment is not practically carried out. 
Every kind of government, even a community or as- 
sociation, must have its order. Hence, certain elders 
are placed in charge of affairs, and on their capacity, 
and specially on their executive ability and fidelity, the 
success of the community will depend. Probably in- 
dividuals may offer counsel, but the head must rule or 
affairs would soon work badly. It is a democracy, 
with a head that rules the body. A body of men who, 
from whatever motive, are willing to give up their in- 
dividuality, and trust for the direction of their indus- 
try and the supply of their wants to the providence of 
one or more of their number who directs their 
work and does their thinking for them, is not likely to 



I04 THE QUESTION OE 

rebel against authority, nor can it be expected they 
will advance in the culture and refinements of civ- 
ilization. Excepting the ruling members, it is almost 
on a dead level of monotony. 

An important fact in relation to the community is, 
that comparatively a small number of men are willing 
to bury their personality in a community of this kind. 
From the very characteristics of the human mind, it 
cannot be expected that any who feel the dignity of 
their personality, will consent to such an absorption, 
and thus bury their individuality in the community. 
For this reason, it cannot be expected (except for 
those who rule) the community will obtain recruits 
except from the class of weak-minded persons who 
have not the manliness to maintain their independence. 
This is no doubt the main reason why they have made 
so little progress in the world. It certainly does not 
promise essential amelioration in the question of capi- 
tal and labour. The system necessarily leaves out 
of view the principle of personal independence that 
nerves the mind to vigorous effort, and which has 
achieved the great works of civilization. 

Government aid to Labor. 

I propose but few remarks under this head. The 
thing is so absurd in any economic view, that it would 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. I0 j 

not be noticed, except for some recent claim on the 
aid of government to assist labour. The French made 
an experiment of this kind shortly after the revolu- 
tion of 1848. What were known then as the comun- 
ists, claimed it as a duty of government to provide 
work for the people. This folly was listened to, and 
led to the establishment by government of shops for the 
fabrication of goods. It did not require much time to 
demonstrate this to be not only absurd, but ruinous 
to the government. Those shops, except so far as they 
were for military purposes, have been, as I understand, 
abandoned, and the idea of the communists has only 
been partially maintained in the way of municipal and 
other public works, which have been sufficiently im- 
pressive in the onerous taxes that follow in the wake 
of every attempt of government to do what should be 
done, and can much better be done, by individual en- 
terprise. 

Not long since a convention of working-men met 
at the city of Pittsburgh. On that occasion they set 
forth a project for the government to furnish funds at 
a low rate of interest, to miners and others, as a capi- 
tal that would enable them to dispense with the aid 
of banks, and so carry on industrial enterprise with- 
out dependence on capitalists. Their idea, probably 
had its origin in the supposition the government had 



I0 6 THE QUESTION OF 

funds, and that it was its duty to aid the working class 
of men. Whereas, the fact is, the government has got 
no money or resources, except in taxes ; and if it fur- 
nish funds to one class of men, it can only do so 
by taxing all classes. The impolicy, the injustice of 
this, did not suggest itself to the convention. Such 
propositions are no credit to the intelligence of work- 
ing-men, who should have at least the sagacity to see 
their absurdity. It was a chimerical proposition, and 
would not be worthy of notice, except that it was 
brought forward as a measure to adjust the question of 
capital and labour. The working-men should know 
that governments, when they have undertaken to pro- 
vide for them, have done more for their degradation 
than for their improvement, and that the only real 
service the government can do for working-men, is to 
maintain their rights as freemen, and thus secure to 
them the full product of their skill, labour and enter- 
prise in all the range of productive labour. Men are 
prone to forget the great truth that it is only as indi- 
viduals a community can properly prosper, This is 
the basis and strength of our civilization, and the hope 
of its progress. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 107 

Co-Operative Industry. 

By this it is understood that labour and capital 
shall be associated, so that both shall be represented 
by the same parties. That is, working-men unite their 
means in order to provide the capital that may be 
necessary for the economical production of the goods 
they propose to fabricate. The plan has many advo- 
cates, and to some extent has been put in practice. 
The idea is certainly a very plausible one, and to the 
minds of many persons, offers the best solution of the 
question of labour and capital. Some remarks have 
been made on this problem, and it is now proposed to 
examine it in more detail. 

In all the industries that admit, it is obviously the 
best method for the workman to hold in his own right 
so much capital as is needed to conduct his work 
most economically. It is favourable that there are 
many industries requiring but a moderate amount of 
capital in funds to conduct them ; not more than any 
industrious and prudent man may acquire by his own 
savings in a few years. After this comes a class of 
industries that may require the partnership of two or 
three in order that their joint means may be sufficient. 
So far there is no difficulty that is not common to all 
business, in settling the labour question. 



I g THE QUESTION OF 

A firm or partnership of two or three persons may 
be regarded in a limited degree as a co-operative com- 
pany. But this is not what is usually understood by 
co-operative industry. The latter looks to a more ex- 
tensive association, designed to compass a larger 
business, and may include twenty to one hundred or 
more persons. With even ten persons in such an 
association, it is difficult to see how such a party could 
be better organized than as a 

Joint-Stock Corporation. 

In any other way it would be very inconvenient, if 
not impracticable, to conduct their business. Under an 
act of incorporation the association could establish 
rules of business, and direct the general method of op- 
eration, and choose their executive managers. If, as I 
suppose, there is no better way, then co-operative in- 
dustry becomes corporate industry, and the association 
is a corporation. In this case each member would be a 
stockholder according to the proportion of funds he 
contributed. This seems the most simple plan of con- 
ducting any association designed for the larger class of 
industries, where large capital, together with labour, 
must be united to effect the most economical produc- 
tion of goods. This method is quite practicable, as in 
most of the States laws provide for and authorize the 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 10g 

formation of such corporations for manufacturing and 
mining purposes. The field is open to all working- 
men. 

The question naturally occurs, why has it not been 
more availed of by working-men ? The way is cer- 
tainly open and free. There must be some reason 
why they have not improved it. In reference to this, 
I remark. In some kinds of production there is a 
comparatively small proportion of skilled labour. To 
a large extent it is the labour of common labourers, 
females and minors, who are not possessed of the funds 
required, nor skilled in the executive duties required 
to manage large works. If such works are to be con- 
ducted, there must of necessity be some, if not the 
principal part, of the funds obtained from those who 
are not working people. Not to embarrass this dis- 
cussion, I shall look at the productions that mostly 
demand skilled labour. 

It is well known there are excellent workmen who 
can manage well their own work, but have very little 
of the executive skill necessary to lay out and plan 
work for a shop or even a department of a shop. If 
such as these, as most probable, compose a portion of 
the association, they must be subject to the manager 
of the shop, or the foreman in their department of 
work. There should be no difficulty in this, as the 



I IO THE QUESTION OF 

manager is supposed to understand what is best to be 
done by each member. To submit to this rule it is 
necessary there be confidence in the skill and fidelity 
of the executive head ; and such self-control on the 
part of the workman as will induce him to yield his 
own opinion, if in conflict with the manager or fore- 
man. Now the company, and the original authority 
are the workmen themselves, and if these have not 
the culture of self-restraint, that will readily yield to 
the direction of those empowered to control affairs, 
they will soon lose the benefit of harmonious action. 
It is impossible to regulate a large company of men 
so as to work with economy unless there be rules and 
authority to enforce the rules. Does this present a 
difficulty to co-operation ? Every workman that enters 
such an organization should carefully consider if he 
is ready to submit his judgment to that of another 
workman, who stands on the same corporate plane 
with himself, and has no other authority than that 
given by himself and associates. If the workmen have 
not the culture to yield to this discipline, they are not 
prepared for co-operative industry. 

Let us see how a moderate case would work — say 
one that will furnish work for twenty skilled labourers. 
We have first to examine the question of funds required 
for the land, mill or shop, mechanical power, machin- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. j j x 

ery and tools. For such an industry these could not 
be estimated at less than thirty thousand dollars. 
This may vary according to the production contem- 
plated. To the outlay so far made there must be added 
funds necessary for the purchase of raw stock, the 
maintenance of the men during the reduction to the 
finished fabric, and the credit that will probably be 
required after the sale of the goods. These cannot 
prudently be estimated at less than the first outlay, 
namely, thirty thousand dollars. Total capital sixty 
thousand dollars, or an average of three thousand 
dollars for each man. It could hardly be expected 
that twenty men for any specific industry would each 
be able to furnish the three thousand dollars, nor 
would it be necessary, as in a joint-stock corporation 
each would furnish what he could, making the aggre- 
gate capital required. 

The men should be so organized that each should 
be paid for his work according to its value, and the 
profits go to each according to his share in stock. It 
cannot be doubted there would be some difficulty in 
finding twenty men, in any one industry, who would 
furnish the amount required. Men who had conducted 
their affairs so prudently as to have three thousand 
dollars at command, for a specific investment, would 
very likely hesitate in so far putting it in the control 



1 1 2 THE QUESTION OF 

of a co-operate association as to lose its individual 
function. It may be presumed there are cases where 
the men and the funds could be obtained for such an 
enterprise as contemplated, and on this supposition I 
proceed. 

The company formed and the funds provided, and 
the men are supposed to be well skilled in the work 
proposed, the next thing will be the election of 
managers who are to supervise and conduct their 
operations. This, of course, will be by the votes of 
the members. The managers appoint a superintendent 
who is to conduct the operations of the work and 
supervise its general affairs. It should be expected 
one of the company would fill this station. 

A treasurer will be required to keep the books and 
manage the finances. It might happen that some 
member of the association would be qualified for this 
duty ; but this is doubtful. A company of twenty 
skilled men, with the aid of mechanical power and 
machinery, would most probably have yearly transac- 
tions, in materials, wages and product, to the amount of 
one hundred thousand dollars, more or less, according 
to the character of the fabric they produced. To 
conduct this branch properly will require a treasurer 
of considerable capacity, industry and integrity ; and 
if this department is not properly conducted, the cor- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. Ix ^ 

poration will be likely to fail. The treasurer is an 
important officer in any joint-stock operation, and 
great care should be exercised in his selection, and in 
frequent examination of the books and finances. The 
association will have need of commercial experience, 
especially if the raw material is obtained and the 
product sold for distribution at distant points. To as 
great extent as the circumstances may permit, as for 
purchases and sales near by, or that may be conducted 
by letters, the treasurer may manage the general com- 
mercial business. If the industry is in a great measure 
a specialty, and distributed at prominent commercial 
centres, this department will be simplified. But if it 
be necessary to distribute mostly to consumers, a com- 
mercial agent may and most probably will be required. 
In the latter case, the success of the institution would 
depend very much on the agent. These general matters 
are necessarily involved in all large productions, and in 
the wisdom exercised in their management largely 
depends the success of the enterprise. 

In view of my own experience, the most proper 
basis for an institution of this kind is, to pay all 
members, by stipulated wages, the same as they would 
pay a man not belonging to the company. If they 
were all equally efficient workmen, they would equita- 
bly be entitled to the same rate of pay. But this is not 



H4 TIIE Q UESTI0N 0F 

probable ; some men will be more skilful, or better 
workmen than others, and so far as they work for day 
wages, will be entitled to a higher rate. The regular 
compensation of the men, either by piece or wages, is 
best, in order that each have the benefit of proper 
remuneration for his own labour. Any profit on the 
capital stock may then be divided to each according 
to his interest in the same, or it may be deferred 
for the purpose of strengthening the finances of the 
association as may appear desirable. The latter 
course is particularly advisable, rather than to depend 
on loans for current means. 

In forming an association of this kind, it will not 
be safe to predicate on the supposition, that eveay 
man will do his duty freely. Though it must be ad- 
mitted as probable, that the class of men who so 
prudently managed their affairs as to have the funds 
necessary for such an institution, will be very likely 
to see the propriety of conforming faithfully to regu- 
lations which they appreciate as proper for success, 
and which they have aided to establish. But the 
men do not so fully know each other as to warrant 
the adoption of this supposition. In all probability 
there will be necessity for more or less sifting out, 
and this can best be done by establishing a thorough 
system of business. A thoroughly able and good 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ! T 5 

workman is most likely to be satisfied with sound 
business regulations. Though it is claimed that " all 
men are created equal," this must be regarded only 
as to equality of natural right. It would be a useless 
task to demonstrate that in many respects men are 
inot equal, either by creation or training; and it is 
not to be supposed any twenty men, who may agree 
to go into an organization of associated labour, will be 
equally efficient and faithful. 

Some will have less physical power, though of 
good skill. These may do their work well, but have 
not the same endurance, and consequently not the 
same power that occasion may require for special 
effort. It would also be remarkable in such an organ- 
ization as proposed, if it should not turn out that 
some of them were inclined to idle their time, and be 
more fond of talk than of work. It should be kept in 
mind, it is the moral in the workman, no less than in 
the soldier, that gives energy to his operations. If 
he has not the nerve to resist the inclination, or the 
temptation to engage in telling or hearing strange 
and improbable stories, he will hardly live up to the 
wholesome rules of a well-established shop or mill. 
The above is a mere allusion to practical matters, that 
must be considered by any association for systematic 
labour, if they expect success. Consequently there 



! 1 6 THE Q UESTION OF 

must be a method, and power for correction when 
the necessity arises. This will not be difficult, if the 
majority is decidedly in favour of sound rules and 
their efficient enforcement. 

To correct the inequalities of workmen, from 
whatever cause of deficiency, the practice of paying 
by the piece, rather than by day wages, has very 
generally come into use where the work admits. 
This gives the workman the benefit of any superiority 
he may have in skill or industry, and is the most 
ready method of adjusting the compensation. It does 
not dispense with rules, or the supervision of the fore- 
man, who is required to inspect the quality of the work, 
and see that it is not improperly performed as to 
quality or progress. So far as work can be done by 
the piece, the mill or shop will be more productive. 

In view of the importance, and indeed of the 
necessity of success, there must be supervision, and 
the conduct of all work and affairs be subject to a 
thorough administration under sound business rules. 
No man is to be shielded from the strict application 
of the rules of business, on the ground of his being a 
partner. Whatever be the intelligence of the men, 
their enterprise can only be a success through the 
systematic and efficient administration of an executive 
head. Even a body of twenty men can in no other 
way operate in the concert necessary to success. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, ny 

No doubt there are industries that may be con- 
ducted economically with a less amount of funds and 
men than above stated ; but this is stated as a mod- 
erate one, in which labour and capital could be favour- 
ably combined for economical production, though 
much smaller than many branches require. If co- 
operative labour shall prove generally successful, it 
is probable there will be a greater subdivision in pro- 
duction. That is, the works that now produce several 
articles would be taken in parts, and so several com- 
panies may divide up and each become more specific 
in their productions. In former days, it was common 
for one establishment to spin the yarn, leaving the 
weaving to another, and the dying and dressing 
to still other parties. In the manufacture of steam 
engines, the boilers were made at one shop and the 
engine proper at another. In the manufacture of 
tools, machinery and the implements of agriculture, 
the production may be divided, and one company or 
firm produce one and another a different class. Every 
skilled workman will see how production may be 
divided, and still leave the work complete. 

Though there seems no practical difficulties in 
making such divisions as above suggested, and others 
not necessary to particularize, it must be observed, 
that for some reason there is a tendency for similar 



! 1 8 THE Q UESTION OF 

industries to run into combination, and result in large 
mills or shops. Of course these require larger execu- 
tive ability in the power to systemize and arrange 
work for several departments. Certain it is, that 
combination has of late years increased, and mills 
that did one branch only, now do several. The pre- 
sumption is, there are advantages in the larger works 
that have produced this change. It is therefore 
important in establishing a mill for any division or 
branch of the work of a large establishment, that 
great caution be exercised in view of the competition 
that may be expected from the large mill. No doubt 
a small establishment, under a company of industrious, 
skilful and prudent men, would have advantages 
peculiar to a small establishment ; and these may in 
many cases outweigh those of the large mill. 

To this plan of co-operative labour there can be 
no objection. The laws authorizing such associations 
have been for years on the statute books of most of the 
States of this Union. Corporations in numerous cases 
have been formed under them. A very large, if not 
the principal amount of the capital employed in the 
production of fabrics, has been organized in this way, 
for the class of larger industries. 

It is not unusual for towns and villages to 
organize in corporations for manufacturing purposes ; 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. Tl g 

these not solely with a view to direct profit from the 
works, but to increase the industry and business of the 
town. In doing this, the requisite capital is often 
obtained with difficulty, and the result is more a 
public spirit for the improvement anticipated in the 
general business of the town, than any certain view 
of the profits that are expected from the enterprise 
itself. In such cases the workmen can take as much 
of the capital stock as they desire or can pay for. 
After the mill is erected and goes into operation, the 
workmen find employment, and will have opportunity 
to purchase shares of stock, most probably at easy 
rates, and so combine their skill and industry with 
their capital. It would not be necessary for them to 
take up the stock at once, or even the principal part, 
as they could purchase from time to time, according 
as they saved from their wages, and so steadily in- 
crease their ownership until they should be able to 
control the corporation. This opens a very easy 
method for a union of labour and capital — the or- 
ganization perfected, the workmen may go forward 
systematically to acquire the stock capital, as they 
obtain means, and eventually become the owners of 
the mill. If they have ambition to combine labour 
and capital, this seems a very favourable way to 
secure their object. If much is anticipated from the 



1 20 THE Q UESTION OF 

union of labour and capital, hardly a more favourable 
opportunity could be expected. 

Though the method above described appears a 
very favourable one for the co-operation of labour and 
capital, it does not appear that it has been adopted 
to any great extent by working-men. There must be 
some cause for this, and they should investigate and 
determine the reason. 

Partnership Corporation. 

By this is meant a corporation by joint-stock, to 
raise the necessary funds. These funds may be sub- 
scribed by both working-men and by those having 
funds which they put into the corporation for the 
profit they expect from the enterprise. Not necessary 
that all, or even any of the workmen subscribe to the 
funds, or be at all known in the organization of the 
institution. The method contemplates that workmen 
are to be employed at such rate of compensation as 
may be agreed on, and to be regularly paid as in other 
works of the kind to be done. After paying all ex- 
penses, then, from the net profit that may remain, a 
certain rate of interest or dividend is to be paid on 
the capital stock, or carried to the credit of the stock- 
holders, as compensation for the use of their funds ; 
and out of any balance of profit that may remain after 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, I2 i 

paying the interest provided to be paid to the stock- 
holders, a certain rate of this balance shall be paid to 
the workmen that have been in regular service (bar- 
ring any unavoidable detention from work) for the 
year or half year as the case may be, according to the 
amount of wages or pay received by each workman 
during the term provided for. This, it will be noticed, 
provides a certain percentage of the balance, after the 
first dividend of specific interest is paid on the stock. 
Now, if the rate of this distribution to the workmen 
be, say fifty per cent of the said balance, then the re- 
maining fifty per cent of said balance will be divided as 
a further dividend to the stockholders on their stock 
capital. It will readily occur, that if nothing should 
remain after paying wages and other expenses, the 
stockholders would receive nothing for their capital. 

The main feature of the plan is, that it provides a 
contingent benefit to the workmen out of the earnings 
of the mill after he has been paid his regular earn- 
ings. This can only be justified by the consideration 
that under this inducement the workmen will be more 
steady, prudent and diligent in conducting their work, 
and in the care of tools and materials. Under the cir- 
cumstances most likely to exist in forming such a part- 
nership, it is probable this would be more or less real- 
ized ; for only a steady class cf men would be selected, 



! 2 2 THE Q UESTION OF 

or remain so long in the work as to be entitled to receive 
any percentage of the balance of profits. It is very 
probable this plan may work favourably, if the ratio of 
profits can be made satisfactory to both parties. It 
should exclude any workmen occasionally, or for a short 
time employed. 

In regard to this partnership, it is necessary to 
consider how the capitalist will view it. His first ob- 
servation will be — "Who is to secure me against the 
loss that may result ? no one can give me a guaranty. 
The workmen in any event must first be paid, and 
also all other current expenses, before I receive any- 
thing. It is obvious my funds must take the hazard 
of the enterprise, and unless it afford a profit, I get 
nothing. If I am only to receive the interest my 
funds would command on loan, there seems no object 
for me to take the risk. If successful beyond the 
rate of interest proposed, I must divide with those 
who have taken no risk, and have had the benefit of 
occupation. In taking the risk I may lose all ; it is 
therefore reasonable that I should have the benefit, if 
it occur, of corresponding profits ; which the plan re- 
duces by in part giving it to those who have taken no 
risk at all." 

The above position of the capitalist cannot be con- 
troverted, and he only finds the reason to induce him to 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 123 

this partnership, as before stated, namely— The superior 
productiveness of the work that may be expected from 
the ulterior interest the men have in the property of 
the establishment. No doubt there is force in this 
reason, especially when adopted for works that require 
mainly skilled labour. The capitalist must look upon 
it as a matter of business, and consider if it be prob- 
able this plan will secure that extra degree of dili- 
gence and care that will be equivalent to the extra 
compensation provided for. The method appears more 
promising as a means of harmonizing the conflict of 
labour and capital than any other I know of, after 
that of the corporation in which the workmen have 
their own capital, and so secure both wages and 
profits. 

To the working-men it has the benefit of combin- 
ing their interests under the management of men of 
more experience in financial and commercial affairs 
than they are likely to possess themselves, and at the 
same time affords them the opportunity, as they gather 
money from their savings, to purchase shares, and 
hold the stock capital, and so far become effectually 
and thoroughly co-operatives in labour and capital. 

The plan provides, first, that the workmen are to 
be paid regular wages, and the interest to the stock- 
holders paid out of net profits to a certain rate ; and 



1 2 4 THE Q UESTION OF 

second, the workman to be paid a certain rate out of 
any balance that may remain of net profit. If judi- 
ciously and satisfactorily arranged as to the rates to be 
divided, and guarded against incompetent or idle work- 
men, it appears a promising method of adjusting the 
question of capital and labour, in a way that will 
make both more productive. The danger is, that 
difficulty would sometimes arise in dismissing work- 
men who may have failed to satisfy the rules of the 
establishment. It will require a firm, upright and in- 
telligent superintendent to do this duty, and if not 
wisely done, the institution will probably decline. 
The main feature of this plan, namely, the induce- 
ment it offers for men to do the best in their power 
to make the enterprise a success, is very important. 
In arranging wages and profits, a basis should be 
taken of moderate rates — depending for the more full 
compensation for both labour and capital out of the 
ultimate profits. Now it may be observed, no human 
affairs are infallible, and we can only depend on such 
organizations and management as wisdom and experi- 
ence may dictate, and then do the best we can to 
improve and make them useful. 

Remarks on the Preceding. 
All combinations are subject to objections as to 
the economy of their operations. The individual who 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. I2 $ 

has his own capital and labour, will conduct his af- 
fairs, other things being equal, with more energy and 
careful thought than any corporation. In his business 
operations there is no adverse counsel nor interest, 
nor unfaithful associate to mar his success. So far as 
the individual, by his own labour and capital, can 
compass in an economical method the production of 
his goods, it is the best plan. Next to this, there may 
be a partnership or firm, composed of two or three 
persons, for the purpose of uniting their capital and 
labour in a production requiring larger means than 
either may alone be able to furnish. 

The next best source, especially for a young man 
whose occupation requires considerable capital, is an 
admission as a partner in an established industry. The 
advantages of this are obviously important, and may 
often be availed of by the young man who has obtain- 
ed a good character for skill, industry and fidelity in 
his occupation. 

Among the industries of life there is a large num- 
ber, as before noticed, that may be pursued by the 
skilful workman with no more capital than an in- 
dustrious and prudent young man may acquire in a 
few years, or that may be acquired by two or three to 
enable them to operate as a joint firm. With prudent 
management they have in many cases founded impor- 



I2 6 THE QUESTION OF 

tant establishments ; these have grown from compara- 
tively small beginnings— enlarged from profits until 
they became extensive agents in production. Such 
frequently draw in to their aid and partnership younger 
men of their own vocation. Small beginnings have 
grown by this process, from the industry and persever- 
ance of the men, to very large works. 

In the several methods above named, of what 
may be called individual industries, there is no conflict 
between labour and capital ; and as these embrace a 
very large portion of the industries of life, they present 
an important field for men who prefer an independent 
condition in the management of their own industry. 
It will be noticed these embrace whatever industry can 
be conducted with the capital of the workmen. But 
when these grow as before noticed, they more or less 
become employers of other workmen, and also involve 
to this extent the question of struggle between capital 
and labour. 

It is not worth while to notice further the commu- 
nity plan. So far it has made but little progress, 
and if it could succeed to general adoption, it would 
destroy our civilization — uproot the principle of in- 
dividuality, and thus break down the great stimulus 
to human progress, in all that elevates and refines so- 
ciety. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. l2 j 

The plan of government management, by what is 
understood as the paternal method, is entirely irrecon- 
cilable with the principles of civil liberty, and will not 
be tolerated by any intelligent working-men who 
respect their rights and independence as freemen. 
No man of intelligence who does not desire our insti- 
tutions to degenerate into despotism, will favour this 
method of adjusting the labour question. Far better 
for each man to stand on the free right to his own 
labour. 

In the co-operative plan, which is understood 
to be the union of labour and capital, of such a num- 
ber of workmen as may be necessary to provide the 
funds for any production they may contemplate, the 
work, if the plan is strictly carried out, should be 
done only by the partners who have furnished the 
capital. It is only to this extent the method meets 
the case of reconciliation between labour and cap- 
ital. If the organization be by a joint-stock cor- 
poration, which appears to me the best method of 
association, then there would be no difficulty, if occa- 
sion required to employ outside workmen, at the 
market rate of wages, or as may be agreed on. To 
this plan I see no objection, and so far as it combined 
labour and capital, it would dispose of the labour ques- 
tion. It certainly has a very promising look, and 



128 THE QUESTION OF 

may come into general use for the larger class of in- 
dustries. But it must be observed that thus far it 
has made little progress ; suggesting difficulties in 
the way that have not been overcome, and in the 
present aspect does not promise to settle this question, 
until these difficulties are removed. 

The plan of " partnership corporation " proposes 
the workmen have an interest in the ultimate profits 
of the institution, though they have no interest in the 
funds. For industries that require funds beyond the 
resources of the workmen, it presents a favourable 
prospect. If it be arranged on an equitable basis as 
to wages and profits, the workman may have the ben- 
efit of co-operation to the full extent of his means. 
He has, first, the benefit of wages for his work, with a 
contingent interest in the profits. He also has the 
benefit of so much of the capital stock as he may 
have funds to subscribe on the organization of the 
corporation; with the opportunity of adding to his 
stock interest by the purchase of shares, as he ob- 
tains savings from his industries. He will very prob- 
ably be able to purchase shares at their par value, 
and perhaps at less, and so, by gradually investing 
his savings, will increase his interest in the capital 
stock. 

In all organizations on this plan of partnerships, 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. i 2 g 

the capitalist would probably be careful not to include 
workmen of an inferior order, or such as would be 
likely to obstruct or embarrass sound regulations 
in the administration of work or business. The 
method would doubtless demand the association of 
men of sufficient culture to appreciate the necessity 
of submission to wholesome business rules. It is not 
probable that the class of men who are most likely 
to complain of the labour question, and dwell much on 
its hardships, would find occupation with this kind of 
association. But to men of industrious, prudent and 
upright habits, there seems to be no better method of 
co-operation, and that so well provides for harmony 
between labour and capital, in the class of larger indus- 
tries. This, with what may be done in those industries 
that require no capital beyond that controlled by the 
workmen themselves, seems to be all that can be done 
to settle the conflict between labour and capital. 

I do not see how this question can be better settled, 
than by the methods above suggested ; and it is evi- 
dent these, except so far as the labour and capital of 
a private firm can accomplish the end, must be largely 
dependent on the assent of the capitalist. They will 
not hazard their capital on any plan that does not 
offer reasonable prospect for remuneration. 

If they form a partnership corporation, they will 



I 3 THE QUESTION OF 

be cautious in securing workmen of the most reliable 
character. Now it cannot be disputed there is a 
pretty large class of workmen who have not the char- 
acter for self-control that would admit them into 
such a partnership. Some of these are skilful work- 
men, but have not the steadiness of habit necessary 
for such a partnership. It must be kept in mind 
that all co-operative associations must, to be success- 
ful, be made up of men who would be most likely to 
do well in individual enterprise. 

As before observed, skilful, industrious and frugal 
men will have no difficulty in making thrift that will 
place them on a comparatively independent basis. But 
the men who spend their earnings for present gratifi- 
cation, and have none of that regard for future wants 
which can induce them to lay aside a portion of their 
earnings, and so prepare for the contingencies of 
trade or other unavoidable occurrences that contract 
employment, or arrest ability to work, must suffer 
more or less when such contingencies overtake them. 
Very little experience is necessary to admonish men 
of the changeable circumstances of life, and the neces- 
sity for improving what is favourable to-day, in antici- 
pation of at least a possible change to a less favourable 
condition to-morrow. A provident regard for the 
future is an essential feature that distinguishes civil- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. l ^ l 

ization from barbarism. Our civilization has not 
wholly freed us from an improvident class, and these 
must be regarded as deficient in mental and moral 
culture. " As a man soweth, so shall he also reap." 
There is no escape from this : it is a law of nature and 
confirmed by revelation. It involves the idea that 
every man is to provide for himself, and that for this 
provision he is individually responsible, and cannot 
evade it without a sacrifice of his manhood. So long 
as he has the full liberty to apply his labour and his 
enterprise according to his own judgment, he can have 
no ground of complaint. If he wastes his earnings on 
the gratification of present desire, he has no legitimate 
right to call on his more prudent neighbour, in times 
of reverse, to make good his imprudence ; and any 
such call must rest as an appeal to the charity of the 
prudent 

Ability for Saving. 

It is sometimes, and I may say often alleged, that 
working-men do not obtain sufficient wages to have 
anything left for thrift. Many facts, that any man 
may observe, go to prove this erroneous as a general 
principle. It is reported as statistically correct, that 
there is annually expended in this country, six hundred 
millions of dollars for intoxicating drinks ; and it is 



! 3 2 THE Q UESTION OF 

estimated that four hundred millions, beyond any 
beneficial use of this, is by working-men. It is well 
known the thrifty class pay a very small proportion of 
this, probably not one quarter. If this estimate is 
correct, and I think it fully so, then we have three 
hundred millions uselessly expended on this item by 
the improvident class. 

I know of no estimate of the number of this class, 
and do not suppose any great accuracy can be had as 
to the same. I do not think it exceeds one and a half 
million of men ; but to assume it at double this, or 
three millions, appears to me quite liberal as to the 
number. On a cautious basis I therefore take it at 
three millions, and this gives an average of one 
hundred dollars for each man per year. This I think 
too high for common labourers ; but it is well known 
that many skilled labourers indulge in this habit. 
This estimate embraces only the loss in the actual 
cost of the liquor drank. In addition to this source 
of loss, there is much time and health wasted, and 
money expended by the improvident class, in various 
useless and more or less demoralizing amusements, 
and at idle corners and for tobacco. There can there- 
fore be no doubt that more than three hundred millions 
of dollars per year could easily be saved by this class, 
and not curtail their necessary expenses one cent. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL jjj 

These sources of saving leave no doubt of the safety 
of the above estimate. It is amply within the reach 
of the dependent class. (That the above is a moder- 
ate estimate will be manifest, when it is considered the 
statistics of value are based on the wholesale rate, and 
that the consumers for the most part pay nearly double 
this.) 

That sum annually saved would provide a capital 
sufficient to build and equip (1,500) fifteen hundred 
mills at a cost of ($200,000) two hundred thousand 
dollars each, or for the purchase of (150,000) one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand farms at ($2,000) two thou- 
sand dollars each. To bring this question home, I 
will make the application to the State of New York. 
This State has about one-ninth, but for round num- 
bers assume that it has one-tenth, of the population of 
the Union. Then, this rate of saving, practised for 
ten years, would provide as above, namely, for (1,500) 
fifteen hundred mills at a cost each of ($200,000) two 
hundred thousand dollars — or for the purchase of 
(150,000) one hundred and fifty thousand farms at 
($2,000) two thousand dollars each. It is therefore seen 
the proposed saving would add greatly to the instru- 
ments of labour in the hands of labouring-men. It 
would not only result in this large saving in means, 
but would also be a saving of the health impaired, and 



j 24 THE QUESTION OF 

of time wasted and happiness destroyed by the inevita- 
ble effects of indulging in intoxicating drinks. And 
what is more important, it would raise the character 
of the improvident class, and make them what they 
should be, the proper guardians and protectors of the 
happiness, education and respectability of their families 
— elevate them in their social and political standing 
with their fellow-men, manifesting in their own persons 
the real dignity of labour. 

This result is in the power of that portion of work- 
ing-men who most especially complain of the hard- 
ships of their lot, and call for the earnest effort of the 
philanthropist to relieve them from the result of their 
own improvidence. Industrious perseverance in the 
saving that may be secured by every able-bodied man, 
will steadily and surely reduce the ratio of the class of 
dependent men to that of the class of independent 
men. The former surrounding themselves as the latter 
do, with comfortable dwellings, and the means of 
material and moral improvement ; giving them the 
dignity of manhood and self-control ; furnishing them 
with improved instruments for their labour and enter- 
prise ; or the investment of their accumulations in 
interest-paying securities ; laying a foundation for the 
necessities of advancing age, when the ability of labour 
must necessarily be diminished. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. Y ^ 

Men, if they would prosper, must be free, and one 
of the conditions of freedom is, to secure each man in 
the full enjoyment of his individual personality. In 
this it is his right to make the best of his situation. 
If he is industrious, skilful and frugal, barring ex- 
traordinary circumstances, he will succeed. If he 
has not the manliness to do this, he must reap the 
due reward of his election. 

Civilization is the result of culture, and there can 
be no civilization without the rights of private property ; 
and property can only be had by industry and frugality. 
It is substantially all obtained in this way, and those 
not willing to practice this method, cannot ordinarily 
expect to obtain it. However well a man may labour, 
if he spends all his earnings in providing for current 
wants, he cannot accumulate, and must eventually 
come to the condition of the dependent class. 

It is said some men have a natural turn or gift for 
thrift, and that others never seem able to get beyond 
a supply of present wants. No doubt there is a differ- 
ence in the intellect and moral stamina of men, which 
it may not be possible for man to equalize or adjust. 
I do not enter on those cases, but direct my at- 
tention to the large proportion who can be improved, 
as I hope, by mental and moral culture. The differ- 
ences that appear show the moral of the men, as devcl- 



!36 THE QUESTION OF 

oped mostly by education. In general the case does 
not lay in fortune, but in a purpose that makes the 
difference we find in society. The best philanthropy 
in this case is, to promote such culture as will estab- 
lish thoroughly in the mind the principle of self-con- 
trol, by which a man shall have the power of appro- 
priating his energies to useful purposes and guard him 
against waste. When this is effectually secured, there 
will be little complaint of the conflict between labour 
and capital. 

It is certainly no pleasure to set forth the above 
remarks, as cause in producing the dependent class ; 
but convinced of their truth, I see no alternative. The 
evil of improvidence can only be corrected by fully 
unfolding and understanding the cause. 

The law of nature, no less than that of revelation, 
establishes the rule of right and wrong, and the con- 
sequences that inevitably result, as a man makes his 
election to follow the one course or the other. It is 
therefore clearly incumbent on every man to deliberate 
carefully on the course he will pursue ; as when enter- 
ed upon he cannot escape the issue. It is a matter in 
which he must take his own responsibility. There is 
no escape from this. 

The man who has been well trained in habits of 
diligent industry, uprightness, self-control and frugality, 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. \^y 

barring exceptional cases, will be thrifty, and rise to 
competent independence, if not to great wealth. On 
the other hand, if the man pursues industry merely to 
satisfy present wants, and with no special regard to the 
future, he must be content to take his position in the 
dependent class, and sooner or later realize that his 
sustenance must come from public or private charity. 
Every sane man will consider this question, so far as 
he values his future prosperity. It may be added his 
present happiness as well ; for no man who has a 
laudable desire to frugally improve the present, will fail 
to realize a far greater degree of present enjoyment, 
than the one who is listless as to the future. It is in 
this choice the moral tone will be manifested, and the 
true dignity of manhood be demonstrated. To evade 
this question on a plea of incompetence, is pusillani- 
mous, and a giving up of all that is manly or charac- 
teristic of the essential principles that should call out 
and adorn individual personality. If any man has not 
the appreciation of the benefits of civilization so as to 
induce him to embrace them, and lay the foundation 
of the prosperity that is within his reach, he will in a 
greater or less degree follow that of the savage, who 
will not work to-day for the supply of his wants to- 
morrow. 

It is a common complaint among workmen, that their 



I3 8 THE QUESTION OF 

wages are too small to allow them to make savings 
above expenses of living. But this has been done by 
farm labourers, who in the course of ten years have ac- 
cumulated by saving from their wages, and the interest 
thereby secured, from ten hundred to fifteen hundred 
dollars. This enabled them to purchase a small farm, or 
to make a large payment down, and thereafter to work 
as their own masters. The class of men who do this 
will not stop saving when they enter on their own 
lands, but will continue to accumulate, and in most 
cases acquire a handsome independence as a substan- 
tial comfort for their advanced years. If this result 
may be reached by a farm labourer, certainly a skilled 
labourer may reach a similar independence. All that 
is needed in either case is the moral nerve or self-con- 
trol necessary to overcome desire for indulgence in 
things that are not necessary, and not consistent with 
ultimate good. It is well for all to consider what has 
been stated, that this is the way existing capital has 
mostly been obtained. More or less favourable condi- 
tions, and eminence in executive ability, will produce 
corresponding results. But I have taken the farm 
labourer or his equivalent as an illustration of what 
has been accomplished ; and what has been done may 
still be done, when there is a purpose of making the 
best of the situation. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ! 3 g 

Regarding capital, as for the most part it is, the 
product of accumulated earnings, frugally husbanded, 
and that the field of similar enterprise is open to all 
who have the spirit and manliness to embrace it, there 
can be no just ground for a conflict between it and 
labour. As an illustration : I employ a man at wages 
from which he saves more than half his pay. I pay 
him out of the savings I have accumulated in early 
life. If I had not in this way provided the capital to 
pay, he could not obtain the wages from me, nor from 
any one who had not the capital or means to pay, 
There is no conflict between me and my workman. I 
am satisfied with his work, and he is satisfied with 
his wages, and by .his frugality he is accumulating 
capital. 

The conflict that arises between the workman and 
the capitalist is precisely the same as that which 
arises in all free commercial transactions between 
men ; it is in no sense peculiar, and must be settled 
by the same law of demand and supply that pertains 
to every department of business. Therefore, though 
there may be contest, it is in no special sense a con- 
flict. Any effort to evade the law referred to, will in- 
evitably end in failure. 



I4 THE QUESTION OF 

Thrifty and Unthrifty. 

There is no question as to the fact that there are 
two classes in society — The Thrifty and the Unthrifty. 
It is the province and the duty of Christian civilization 
to reduce the ratio of the latter to the former. The 
best progress in this will be made when a practical 
Christianity has a controlling influence on the minds 
of men. Vice will inevitably prevail where a sense of 
moral right and purity does not control. A sound pro- 
priety of conduct cannot be expected to prevail in the 
absence of veneration for the right in affairs, and pu- 
rity in morals. I know very well there are those, and 
among them some who have made success in their af- 
fairs, that lightly esteem the above sentiment, and claim 
that principle the best, " that keeps what they have 
got and gets what they can," leaving others to do as 
they can with no sympathy from them, indeed some 
regard the dependent poor as a necessity for the ac- 
commodation of the rich, and treat any desire in them 
to rise to respectable conditions as an unwarrantable 
assumption. Such have no fellowship, and ignore the 
duty and obligation of " doing as they would have 
others do to them." However men may trifle with 
these sound principles of morals and of right, they, 
nevertheless, are the basis of all that is true in our 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. I4I 

civilization, and especially in so far as this must be 
our reliance, to establish productive industry on a just 
basis, and also for the maintenance of civil liberty 
and the just rights of men. Disregard for the just 
rights of others, for courteous deportment and for 
purity of manner, will inevitably lead to anarchy, op- 
pression, and the destruction of the basis on which civ- 
ilized society rests. 

As it has been, so we must expect it will be, these 
two classes, the thrifty and the unthrifty, will be more 
or less in antagonism with each other. The man that 
is unthrifty, who has consumed his earnings as fast as 
he has received them, and left no reserve for the wants 
of the future, when the future arrives will think it 
quite becoming his wants should be supplied out of 
the savings of his thrifty neighbour, and complain if 
his neighbour does not respond to the necessities of a 
fellow-being who comes to him in his time of need. 
The unthrifty man takes no note to explain the 
wasteful character of his own proceedings, nor regards 
the diligence and self-control or self-denial that has 
secured to the thrifty man his ability to afford relief. 
The unthrifty man attributes his condition to bad luck, 
or some inscrutable providence, and by no means refers 
it to any remissness or want of providence on his own 
part. 



1 4 2 THE QUESTION OF 

We may congratulate ourselves, that of our people, 
who are for the most part working people, there is so 
large a proportion of the thrifty class. These hold up 
our civilization, and so far resist and counteract the 
tendencies of the other class, as to maintain order in 
society, and so largely secure the benefits of diligent 
and economical application in industry and prudence 
in habit. 

So long as that thing called sin (of which some peo- 
ple do not like to speak) has prevalence in the world, 
there will be strong necessity to originate and maintain 
the most efficient methods to promote mental and 
moral culture as a means to mitigate the tendency, if 
we may not wholly remove the habits of indolence 
and waste, and so reduce the ratio of the unthrifty to 
the thrifty to the lowest possible quantity. When 
this can be made complete we shall have solved the 
problem of labour and capital in the only way, and to 
the greatest extent, that is practicable. No American 
youth should think this beyond his powers. It has 
been accomplished by vast numbers, as is manifest by 
the large aggregate wealth that has been produced by 
the steady diligence and self-control of individual men 
who had the manliness to make the most of their 
situation. 

All men are not so educated as to appreciate the 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ^3 

above sentiment. The stream will not rise above the 
fountain. If parents have not the self-control to guide 
themselves in the right way, how can they be expect- 
ed to instruct their children ? The man who has not 
been able to restrain himself, and bring his own pow- 
ers under the control of reason, can hardly be expect- 
ed to restrain and guide his children. If the parent 
is indolent and wasteful, if dishonest in the conduct 
of his affairs, his children will most probably follow 
his example. In this we must not forget those parents 
who have the sense to see their want of education, and 
make manly efforts to provide it for their children. 
Such should have all the aid society can give to 
encourage their laudable endeavour. 

In the following section I shall endeavour to pre- 
sent some hints on the benefit of 

Education. 

I know there is some authority against me, but I 
assume the ground that mental and moral culture tends 
to promote justice, right and purity of manners; and 
that the cultivated man is most likely to be industrious 
and prudent. Exceptions may be quoted showing that 
intelligence of mind has been connected with great 
wrongs, and that cultivation gives a manifest pow- 
er to do a mischief that an uncultured man would be 



144 THE Q. UESTI0N 0F 

incapable of doing. I am compelled to admit the 
exception ; but I contend it is only an exception, and 
does not disturb the general rule ; and hence I look to 
our public schools and other institutions of learning as 
the instrumentality for elevating the working class, 
which in fact includes the most of us as a people. 
These means are most beneficial when supplemented 
by sound and discreet family training. 

The youth will be ardent and more or less frivolous 
and frolicsome, and will not be likely to seriously 
regard the usefulness of his activities. It is in the 
training of the family these energies are to be mould- 
ed and their application gradually directed to useful 
purposes. It is often said youth are heedless and 
impatient of control, which is true to a large extent. 
They have not the experience of age, and their ignor- 
ance leads them to suppose they are wiser than their 
seniors, or at least quite as wise. Of course these views 
will be corrected by years, when experience will teach 
them how small their wisdom was. But it is important 
they learn as much as practicable before they are 
called to the responsibility of conducting affairs for 
themselves. They are not so callous as some suppose, 
and will learn as they listen from time to time to the 
instruction, and observe the experience of a discreet 
parent. A youth will rarely be found who disregards 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. j^ 

the intelligent counsel of a parent he has learned to 
respect for his judgment and correct deportment, and 
is withal impressed by his desire to do him good. The 
youth that does not respect such a father offers little 
hope for his future. 

The youth not restrained by the fear of God, will 
hardly understand the full value of justice, or hold 
that sense of individual responsibility which is 
necessary to a proper self-reliance. A good character 
is predicated on doing "justice and judgment," and 
the exercise of all our powers in industrious production, 
with a discreet frugality in all our personal appropria- 
tions. Self-control should be earnestly and system- 
atically inculcated. To succeed in this, it is indispensa- 
ble that we exercise the power necessary to subdue 
those passions which, if unrestrained, bring men under 
an iron vassalage to vice and prodigality, and as a 
consequence to poverty. Virtue or vice — this is the 
real question — " Choose ye which ye will serve." 

In all education, the parent should remember 

the old rule, " It is good for a man to bear the 

yoke in his youth." If the boy is petted, and fails 

to obtain a wholesome discipline in his youth, 

he will probably learn its importance when age will 

not allow him to profit from its salutary culture. 

The parent that deals to his children candy and 

10 



146 THE QUESTION OF 

plums, and stimulates vain desires instead of sub- 
jecting them to a healthy discipline, must not expect 
from them care and kindness, when age and infirmity 
demand this return for parental care, or any comfort 
from seeing them in the occupation of high positions 
of usefulness among men. This matter of discipline 
is often hard to practice, and demands careful thought 
and steady perseverance ; but all experience proves it 
is an indispensable requisite to mould the youthful mind, 
and bring it to the ultimate enjoyment of a course 
of life which at first was regarded with repugnance. 

Let no parent who is so far under the influence of 
civilization as to feel its power,neglect the above sugges- 
tions. They demand the careful consideration of every 
parent who expects or desires his son to be educated 
in the knowledge of his vocation, and in that firmness 
of character that will give him the power to pursue 
his calling in such vigorous manner as will secure him 
a position among his fellow-men, of at least compe- 
tence in property, and respectability as a capable 
and upright man. So far as the parent succeeds in 
establishing this culture, he will bring this contest 
between labour and capital to an end by a durable 
peace. No material gains can be of so great value, or 
do his son so much good, as a well-formed character, 
with ability for useful occupation. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 



Inequality in Wealth. 



147 



Property, during the historic period, has mostly 
been in the hands of a comparatively small number of 
men. Its diffusion in society has increased as civiliza- 
tion in general culture has advanced. It is therefore 
evident that culture, by the education of every work- 
ing-man, is eminently important for progress in the 
civilization necessary to promote the general well-being 
of society. Culture renders man dissatisfied with what 
is barely sufficient for necessary subsistence, and he 
is led to seek enlargement in his wants. The savage is 
content with a hut, culture demands a house with apart- 
ments. As new wants are presented to his tastes or 
called to increase his comforts, the cultivated man seeks 
or devises some new or more efficient method of indus- 
try as the means of providing them. His ingenuity is 
stimulated to ascertain the method,andhis perseverance 
opens by degrees the path to his object. In his pro- 
gress, what was at first regarded as a luxury, becomes 
a common necessity. This progress developes taste 
and enterprise, brings out the arts that elevate the 
mind and improves civilization. In its course it 
leads to additional sources of industry, calling in the 
power of mechanical agents to aid the labour of men 
in the productions that minister to their wants. These 



1 48 THE QUESTION OF 

additional sources of industry and power, enlarge the 
field of employment to both labour and capital. 

As before observed, it does not always happen 
that labour and capital are in the same hands. One 
party has capital and the other labour and skill, and 
these must be harmonized on some principle that will 
regulate their respective positions. In the case 
where the capitalist is not a professional manufacturer, 
and the workman is not able to command the means 
necessary to conduct the operations on his own ac- 
count ; the question with the capitalist will be — can 
I obtain a better interest for my funds by erecting 
mills and conducting the manufacture of a certain 
fabric, than by other means of investment ? The 
prospect must be such as will secure an affirmative 
answer, or he w T ill depend on other ways of using his 
funds. He may be mistaken in his conclusion ; but 
this answer is necessary before he makes the decision 
to erect the necessary works. As a matter of busi- 
ness, he is justified in estimating the cost of the 
labour he will require, on the current rate of the 
market for wages. It is no part of his concern to 
investigate the rate of wages that will support the 
workman ; that is altogether a matter for the work- 
man himself. The latter, in his right, will consider 
his interest, in view of all the circumstances of the 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, j^g 

case, in the light of the labour market ; on the same 
principle the former looks to the market rate of in- 
terest for his funds. It is on both sides a purely 
commercial transaction. There are no equities in 
this, except so far as may regard the proper and just 
discharge of the obligation of contract between the 
parties; they negotiated on the basis of commercial 
equality ; and are equally bound to fidelity in the 
execution of their contracts, same as in any business. 
The charity view must be thrown out altogether as 
having no part in the matter. . If there be any cir- 
cumstance that calls for charity or benevolence, it 
must be treated as a gratuity, and so far removed 
from the domain of business. 

There must of necessity be " inequality in wealth ." 
The discreet man, who by prudently husbanding his 
resources has come to mature years surrounded by 
a well-arranged and productive property, which 
affords him a comfortable independence, according 
to his education and taste, we may suppose has 
raised a family, of perhaps a half a dozen children. 
He is able to provide for this family according to the 
habits in which they have been educated. Now the 
time will come when this estate must be divided. 
As a compact whole, it was ample to provide under 
one roof for this family ; but in the division, this well- 



jjO THE QUESTION OF 

ordered unit of estate, will be less valuable than 
before the division. The children must now be con- 
tent to take each his fragment, which will probably 
be quite inadequate to support them separately in 
the style and manner they had been accustomed to 
under the paternal roof. If now they have been 
well trained to some useful vocation, they will supple- 
ment, each his own fragment, by industry and pru- 
dence, and with the aid of their patrimony, judiciously 
add to its volume, and very probably reach a higher 
degree of wealth than the parent. But if, as is not 
unfrequent, they feel so well provided for as to 
demoralize their industry, and give a slack view to 
exertions, failing of the effort required to make the 
necessary thrift, they will very probably exhaust 
their patrimony and become poor indeed. If the 
patrimony be so large as to be sufficient, with no more 
effort than required for its preservation, it is still 
important to exercise prudence, and secure at least 
some degree of thrift. This is important in view of 
losses that may occur from investments, even if no 
increased expenses are anticipated, as it will provide 
means for making good any loss that may occur, and 
so keep good the income. Here is an obvious source 
of inequality. 

But the main source of inequality in wealth is 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. j 5 l 

found in the two classes of men — the thrifty and the 
unthrifty. One of these will manage affairs by sav- 
ing, and so accumulate wealth — the other elects to 
consume all his earnings, and has little or nothing for 
accumulation. The inevitable result is, the thrifty 
man has wealth, and the unthrifty man passes through 
life in daily struggle for little or nothing above a bare 
subsistence. This is the result of individual character. 
One man improves his powers and another does not, 
and inequality is the inevitable result. No device of 
man, or perfection in civilization has thus far been 
sufficient to prevent this, and it is incumbent on all 
men to so perfect education as will remove this evil, 
so far as it may be practicable to do so. 

This Conflict not Peculiar. 

Although capital and labour must, to a large ex- 
tent, work together in the production of fabrics, there 
is no doubt a conflict of interest, same as in any busi- 
ness transaction ; but in no way peculiar to this. The 
capitalist desires to obtain the largest interest he can 
for his funds, and the workman seeks to obtain the 
highest wages the market will command for his labour. 
There can be no objection to this in either case, nor 
is it different from the struggle that pertains to all 
business under commercial freedom. 



j 1 2 THE QUESTION OF 

Combinations or Monopolies. 

l^e principle of combination to maintain a certain 
rate of wages, is the same as that to maintain a certain 
price for goods. In either case, if the respective par- 
ties are agreed, they may combine their interests, and 
refuse any transaction that does not accord with their 
purpose. So far it is merely a voluntary affair, de- 
pending on the mutual confidence of the parties. 

The courts will not take cognizance of such combi- 
nations, with a view to inflict damage on any of the 
parties connected, if they choose to break from the com- 
bination, and conduct their affairs independently. The 
rule of law that governs in such cases is, that the 
combination is inconsistent with public policy. Any 
action, therefore, of the combination that aims to pun- 
ish those outside, or even one within, if he choose to con- 
duct his affairs independently, will be held unlawful, 
and punished as any other wrong-doing. This princi- 
ple of law is essential to civilization and the mainten- 
ance of the commercial freedom that is indispensable 
to the just rights, as well as the paramount interests 
of society. It is quite as important for securing the 
right of the workmen, as for that of the capitalist. 
This has no relation to contracts for service in labour 
or other exchange, but to those efforts in combination 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ^3 

which aim to overthrow the laws of commercial freedom, 
either by monopoly or any forestalling of the market. 

Combinations have often been formed to control 
the rate of wages and the price of goods. At the 
present day, the means of communication are so en- 
larged, that combinations require too wide a scope to 
be successfully conducted for any considerable length 
of time. The varied circumstances of individuals and 
localities will tend to break in ; and as no legal power 
exists to control or enforce them, they soon fall, and all 
parties are brought into submission to the laws that 
regulate demand and supply. To this result, if there is 
no speciality in the case, all such efforts must come, and 
it is not only the most just, but the best rule that has 
been found. If the supply of capital is large in pro- 
portion to demand, the rate of interest will be low, and 
the same rule holds in relation to the rate of wages. 
The party that desires to hire funds or labour, will 
pay no more than may be necessary to command 
either funds or labour. In either case, business is 
done on this basis. 

To a widow who has a thousand dollars to invest, 
it may be very desirable, and perhaps important for 
her to obtain ten per cent per year ; but if the 
market will only give five per cent, she must be 
content with five. Precisely the same to a workman. 



1 5 4 THE Q UESTION OF 

It may be important for him to obtain two dollars for 
a day's labour, but if the supply of labour is so 
abundant he can find no offer over a dollar, he must 
take the dollar, on the same principle the widow 
accepts five per cent for her funds. In either case 
if more is paid in interest or wages, it must be as a 
charity ; and this removes the question from the 
category of business, a method that has no basis in 
the commercial affairs of men. The charity view, 
moreover, is derogatory to the workman, degrading 
the dignity of labour. 

An intelligent and enterprising workman will see 
that capital is only the accumulated savings gathered 
from previous labour and frugality ; and that his 
savings will be his own capital, as will be manifest as 
he gathers the proceeds of his own enterprise and 
prudence, and which will work for him either as 
instruments in his business or as interest on invested 
capital gathered from his savings. 

This Conflict Should be Adjusted. 

If it were not frequently said — the conflict between 
labour and capital must be settled, we should con- 
clude the matter must be adjusted on the same basis 
as all other commercial transactions. What, then, can 
be meant by settling the conflict between labour and 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ^5 

capital ? Is there any potentate who by decree can 
settle this question ? It would seem that some people 
think it a prerogative of government to do this, and 
some attempts have been made, so far as giving law 
to the hours that constitute a day's work. Applied to 
minors, this may be a proper exercise of authority to 
protect the young from improper exactions of em- 
ployers or guardians ; but as applied to men, who 
hold the power of citizenship, and the full right of 
contract, is no more just or proper than for govern- 
ment to fix the price of a barrel of flour or a pound 
of meat. In the latter case it assumes that an adult 
man is not a free agent, and has no real personality, 
and needs the paternal care of the government to 
minister to his daily necessities. 

Not far in the past, it was regarded necessary that 
the weight of a shilling loaf of bread should be deter- 
mined by municipal authority. This was the practice 
not many years since in the city of New York, and in 
other cities. What was termed the " assize of bread," 
was a measure to protect the consumers from imposi- 
tion by the bakers. It was aljusted from time to 
time as the price of flour changed in the market. I 
very well recollect hearing this subject discussed by 
citizens of New York, about thirty-five years ago, 
who said they found the assize to be useless — that 



I $Q THE QUESTION OF 

the competition among the bakers was the best 
regulation. And so, gradually the people bought 
their bread from the baker who gave the best in 
weight and quality, and the assize by municipal 
authority was abandoned : it fell by its own dead 
weight, an exploded relic of the past. 

In former days it was regarded necessary for the 
city to build markets, for the sale of provisions, and 
to protect the people ; certain persons were licensed 
to furnish and sell the same by authority. No one 
was allowed to sell who had not a license, and at the 
regular market of the city. This was then regarded 
necessary to protect the citizens from imposition in 
the supply of their daily wants of meat, poultry, 
vegetables, fish, fruits, &c. The city of New York has 
largely grown since those days, and with its growth 
markets have been established and conducted by 
individual enterprise at the stores of the owners, 
without license, in various parts of the city, and now 
constitute the principal sources of supply for the 
daily wants of the citizens. Thus as time and intelli- 
gence advanced, municipal regulations have given 
place to free trade. The city and its vicinity now 
contains about one and a half million of people, whose 
daily wants are supplied by the untrammelled law of 
supply and demand. All this is done quietly ; no one 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. j$y 

of this vast population takes thought where his sup- 
plies may come from ; he goes to the store or market 
not doubting he will find gathered all things in their 
season. And how is the daily supply for this popula- 
tion gathered ? There is no government organization. 
No authority is constituted to gather supplies. If it 
were an army of troops, what a busy going to and fro 
of commissaries and assistants ; what hurry and worry 
• of transport and distribution would pervade the sur- 
rounding country ; and who can imagine the amount 
of corruption that would swell the expenses through 
this instrumentality? But this great population is 
provided for without commotion or excitement, and 
finds its daily wants supplied without the least effort 
as to the source or order by which they are brought to 
hand ; and all under the silent operations of the law 
of demand and supply. 

Contemplate the great population of New York 
and vicinity, in view of the daily supplies that are 
needed, and all supplied in such a quiet way that no 
one inquires beyond the market for the article he 
wants, nor feels any regulating authority of govern- 
ment to aid or embarrass him. The old laws of assize 
of bread, and market license, have ceased, and the city 
presents a beautiful specimen of the order, efficiency 
and economy of the laws of free trade, operating on a 



1 5 3 THE Q UESTION OF 

large scale. They have quietly superseded the method 
of municipal regulation, which has been found inferior, 
and has given place to natural law. 

Now, if government authority has failed to prove 
useful in regulating the value of bread, and the sale of 
provisions in a large city, the absolute necessities for 
every day for all, what possible chance is there that 
it can regulate the intricate relations of labour and 
capital with any more beneficence ? There can be none 
at all. Any proposition to adjust these relations by 
other power than the law of demand and supply will 
fail. Other projects may originate in benevolent views 
towards labour, but they will prove mistaken views, 
that neither do credit to the workmen nor justice 
to the dignity of labour. They repudiate the principle 
of self-government, and go to establish what is termed 
paternal government, or one that holds man incapable 
of conducting his own affairs. Government is certain- 
ly necessary, in order that every man be protected in 
his own personal rights, and secure to each his rights 
of labour and contract. After this the man should be 
left free to conduct his affairs according to his own 
judgment, under equal laws. 

Labour cannot, be employed, unless there is an 
object to serve. It is wanted when there is work to 
be done, and will be employed if the market rate war- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. !^g 

rant the production for which it is desired. If this is 
too high to justify its application to the specific object, 
then this class of production cannot be prosecuted, 
and the labour must seek another channel for employ- 
ment. Is it possible under such circumstances for 
the government to step in and direct the course of 
industries. No sensible man will claim this. If 
therefore labour is in excess of the demand, the ten- 
dency will be the same as in all over supply of goods 
or services, and subject to the same competition. 
There is no possible escape from this, without destroy- 
ing the basis of commercial freedom. 

No labour is bestowed nor funds appropriated to 
any production, except on the basis of deriving a 
profit. Neither will be supplied, unless the prospect 
of remuneration is equal to that which maybe obtained 
in other branches of industry. To say to a workman, 
you must work for a fixed rate, or to a capitalist you 
must be content with a fixed profit, irrespective of the 
market, is absurd and injurious to all parties, though 
governments have more or less attempted such regula- 
tions. But this paternity principle is on the wane, 
and will be wholly abandoned as intelligence prevails. 
If this is correct, how shall the labour and capital 
problem be solved ? These parties will not go into 
production on any other terms than the market rate, 



!6 THE QUESTION- OF 

unless some arbitrary power shcmid interpose to com- 
pel them. Any such power would destroy self-gov- 
ernment or civil liberty, and reduce man to dependence 
on a despot. But we are by no means left to this 
alternative. The law of demand and supply is ample 
for the adjustment of this question. Let these alone, 
and with the greatest harmony they will work out the 
best possible result in the combined operations of 
labour and capital. This is commercial freedom, the 
only law that can secure dignity and just remuner- 
ation to labour, and the proper return for capital. 
Both are to be compensated on the basis of this one 
law, and no act of man can produce a more beneficent 
result, and all efforts to evade it can only end in 
failure or despotism. 

Some men discuss this question as though we 
should have a bashaw to determine and settle the 
intricacies of our industries. This is claimed in the 
interest of labour, as though it was some feeble thing 
that had not the power to take care of itself. What 
is the great fact of American history in regard to 
labour ? It is that it has produced nearly all the capi- 
talists of the country,— has subdued a wilderness, and 
in place erected dwellings, offices, warehouses and 
mills ; it has built cities, canals and railways ; it has 
drained and fenced the lands, so that our eyes behold 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, jgj 

a cultivated country. In addition, it has built school- 
houses, academies, colleges, and sustained the educa- 
tion that has given us our civilization ; it has erected 
church edifices and sustained the preaching of the 
gospel of Christ, which is the constitution of civil 
liberty. After all this shall labour go begging for 
charity ? Heaven forbid ! 

But to this it is replied, will you not allow the 
exercise of charity to the unfortunate ? Certainly, not 
only to the unfortunate, but also to the improvident ; it 
is proper for the government and for individuals to 
make provision for the aged, the infirm, and all that 
from mental or physical imbecility are unable to pro- 
vide for their own subsistence. But this takes the 
question out of the business circle, and we must be 
careful not to confound manly labour with pauperism. 

To an American citizen it will readily occur that 
this question is intimately connected with civil liberty. 
Free government is supposed to be established for the 
purpose of securing to every man, by equal laws, the 
rights of labour and enterprise ; with no class privi- 
leges. It is founded on the belief that every man will 
judge most wisely of the kind or method of labour 
best suited to his circumstances. This is the highest 
hope of the working-man. It puts him in the position 

to make the best of his situation. It is for him to de- 

II 



X 62 THE QUESTION OF 

tide whether or not he will occupy its advantages. 
Here is a field open to the cultivation and improve- 
ment of his best powers. Though he begin in a 
small way, with patient perseverance and prudent con- 
duct of his affairs, he will take thrift from the start, 
and gradually improve his condition, until he reach a 
reasonable competence if not large wealth. If, how- 
ever, the government by some Utopian method takes 
from his savings, and bestows it on some indolent 
brother workman, he will so far lose the benefit of his 
own industry. It is to be observed the government 
can give nothing to one that it does not take from 
another, and hence the gross injustice of any such act 
of special favour. The same result will follow any at- 
tempt of authority, to stipulate the terms of labour. 
Certainly it requires very little reflection to see the 
impossibility of any just regulation of the intricate af- 
fairs of labour and capital, as associated in production 
by authority of government. The effort to compass this 
by regulating the hours of labour for adult men, is a 
gross intermeddling that can only work evil, and is no 
part of the function of government. 

The protection of civil liberty is of the most im- 
portant benefit to all labour and enterprise, and should 
be especially cherished by the working-man, who 
should be jealous of any infringement of his natural 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. j6<$ 

right or the establishment of any class privileges in 
society. This question of civil liberty deserves to be 
carefully considered by every working-man. It in- 
volves the very important principle of individuality or 
free government by which each citizen is sustained in 
the right of employing his energies in such a way as 
he regards most likely to promote his welfare. Now, 
what other power can so well understand this as him- 
self ? Who else shall so fully comprehend the numer- 
ous circumstances of business by which he may be 
surrounded ? Is it possible for government to do this ? 
It is a well-settled principle, that affairs conducted by 
government are more expensive than those conduct- 
ed by an individual. And from this it is well claimed 
by the friends of civil liberty, that the government 
should be restricted in its operations to those things 
that cannot be conducted by individuals. Even a 
business corporation is more exposed to errors in 
judgment and corruption in management, than those 
managed by an individual, or a firm of two or three 
persons. 

Government is wanted to maintain justice among 
men, and protect each from any wrong on the part of 
others ; and this should be irrespective of parties ; es- 
tablishing protection to all, and granting special favours 
to none. Civil liberty rests on the doctrine " that all 



T (54 THE QUESTION OF 

men are by nature free, and possess the inalienable 
right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." 
This principle is all-important to the working-man, 
and in fact to ah others as well. It sustains, in full 
action, the power of individual labour and enterprise, 
giving to man the right to make the most of his 
situation. Under this rule our country has prospered. 
Industry has been rewarded, and men with nothing 
but their skill and labour to begin with, have acquired 
large wealth, and great numbers have obtained compe- 
tent estates. But it must not be forgotten these 
results have been secured by industry and frugality — ■ 
beginning with small thrift and followed up under the 
influence of a wise self-control. This class have no 
conflict with capital. They feel the strength of indi- 
vidual power. The conflict is confined mostly to the 
class who labour for present subsistence, and are not 
disposed to restrain the gratification of to-day in order 
to secure a future good. These are very likely to 
complain of their lot, and look enviously to those of 
their fellow-workmen who by self-denial have been 
thrifty, and by this very means have put tools and 
machinery into the hands of their less provident fel- 
lows, thereby saving the latter from the necessity of 
depending on the chase to procure the means of a 
scanty and precarious subsistence. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. jgj 

Industry and frugality are the basis of thrift ; they 
are of eminent benefit, not only to the individual that 
practices them, but to society in general. It is not 
merely in the accumulation of property, but is also of 
great value in promoting the mental and moral 
advancement of men. The man who has a purpose to 
improve his condition, by every laudable means in his 
power, has put on a powerful shield for his protection 
against the evils and degradation of ignorance and 
vice. 

Every American working-man should deeply 
consider the benefit he enjoys in the possession of 
civil liberty, in that it secures to him the right to 
exercise his industry in the way he regards most bene- 
ficial to himself. If in this he fails to make the best 
use of his powers, he should not complain of those 
who do. It he possess ordinary powers, or such as 
place him above the plane of charity, he must consider 
the world owes him nothing but justice and fair dealing. 
It is his province to provide for himself by the laudable 
and vigilant exercise of his own powers. The motto, 
" that the world owes him a living," is without founda- 
tion, and strikes at the basis of individuality. 

It is sometimes said property is very unequally 
distributed. This is largely, if not essentially, an 
error, when applied to young men, who rarely have 



1 66 THE QUESTION OF 

much property in the outset of life. If applied to 
those of advanced age, it merely expresses the fact — 
that all men do not equally avail of the facilities for 
thrift, that have arisen from the industry and prudence 
of those who have been successful. One man carefully 
husbands his resources, while another spends more 
than is needful in the indulgence of present desire. 

As to young men it may be said there are those 
who obtain property from the savings of their parents, 
and thus have a property to commence their business 
life. While this is true to some extent, it is doubtful 
if such inheritance gives them any advantage over the 
young man who, having no expectations of this kind, 
manfully prepares for his business life, and depending 
on his personal energy and skill, pursues his vocation 
with greater vigour. It is often found that the expec- 
tation of inheritance impairs close attention to business, 
and often leaves the race to him who had only his 
better cultivated individual power. It is difficult for 
a young man who has never known much of want 
to realize the necessity of the energy and prudence 
required to conduct labour or business with thrift. 
It therefore appears the best thing a parent can do for 
his son, is to carefully instruct him in a business 
education, so as to well fit him for the calling he is 
intended to follow. There is no more pleasant thing 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. iQy 

for a parent than to see his son go forward in his 
occupation and gradually rise in character as a 
capable, intelligent and upright citizen. This he may 
reasonably hope for if his education in business and 
purity of manners has been correct and well impressed, 
whether he have property to begin with or not. 

There have been instances of men rising in disre- 
gard of their surroundings to a rank of prominence 
in business life. But these are exceptional cases ; the 
great mass of men will move on in the path they have 
chosen according to their education ; and the proba- 
bility of correcting cardinal errors of youth in time 
to profit, is very small, and hence the importance of 
correct early training. This training must depend 
essentially on the parent. The young man goes into 
his business life according to his training. As a 
matter of course this will depend on the capacity of 
the parent for the work. It will require a good degree 
of self-control and perseverance. In the nature of the 
boy there will be much to correct in order to mould 
him into conformity with the exigencies of a business 
life. The first important point to be considered is, 
the son does not know as much as the father, and 
therefore the father should put himself in the position 
of an instructor, and should consider, that no one 
knows, in a practical degree, by intuition, and if the 



!68 the question of 

son does not know, it is because he has not seen 
or heard and is in need of information. A wise 
parent will always avail of any circumstances, even 
in the common routine of every-day affairs, to bring 
knowledge to the opening mind of his son, so as to 
fortify him against error, and illustrate truth to his 
mind. 

Ordinary elementary education is not here under 
consideration ; but the education of business life, the 
formation of the mind to the exigencies of business 
affairs. No great experience is required to know there 
are many contingencies that hang around and render 
uncertain the result of enterprise ; all demanding pru- 
dence to guard against disappointment. Often a very 
promising enterprise ends in severe loss. All such 
results afford experience, and the young man should 
be guarded as much as possible against such losses by 
the warning of a fathers experience. The father has 
more or less of experience from his own transactions, 
and his observation on those of other men. To be 
useful to his son he should communicate to him his 
own knowledge in all matters that come under his 
observation. Boys that have had proper training will 
ordinarily be very attentive to the advice and instruc- 
tion of a parent who has instilled confidence in his 
efforts to impart useful instruction. I know it is said 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ^9 

boys are vain and self-willed, thinking they are wiser 
than their seniors ; but I have seldom known a boy 
that did not listen with respect to the instruction of 
an intelligent and discreet parent. The boy has pas- 
sions and appetites that often urge him in opposition 
to wholesome advice, and when these tendencies are 
opposed by severe terms, the effect is often unfavour- 
able ; but if they are met with a wise moderation, and 
a manner that indicates not only the wisdom of 
experience but a serious paternal interest in the boy's 
prosperity, he will be most likely to yield to wise 
counsel before he is aware of it. 

To forewarn a son against errors in business pur- 
suits, and impress on his mind the necessity of cau- 
tion and propriety of manners, and in all matters of 
doubt to advise him to consult with men of experience, 
in whose integrity he may confide, is an important 
parental duty. It is favourable that a large portion of 
the affairs of business life are easily learned ; they are 
only complex as a man advances to those operations of 
high skill, trust and confidence, that more open the 
young man to the influence of deception and errors of 
judgment. Here he may need the counsel of a dis- 
interested friend, and no one can be found so reli- 
able as a parent. He is naturally concerned, that 
his son should not only succeed in his business pur- 



jy Q THE QUESTION OF 

suits, but that he establish the character of an 
intelligent and upright citizen. Among the things a 
parent should call to the attention of his son are — 
steady industry, and a care to avoid any expense that 
will not allow thrift. Thrift or progress elevates the 
dignity and sustains a man in labour, and renders his 
work pleasant and interesting, which would otherwise 
be irksome. 

I have known men who by their skill and indus- 
try had acquired large property, but failed to so ed- 
ucate their sons as to enable them to preserve and 
improve it. This is far less favourable than a small 
property, with a sound business education. Such 
errors tend to scatter the accumulations of a success- 
ful business life, and show the folly of neglecting the 
business and moral education of children. 

After a parent has done all that he may be able 
to do in the instruction cf his son in the business 
affairs of life, he should not forget the indispensable 
culture that shall teach him " to fear God and keep 
his Commandments." This is the great duty of man, 
and is withal the basis of all prosperity and hap- 
piness. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. iji 

CONCLUSION. 

I take exception to the scientific and philanthropic 
writers on industrial economy, who assume that the 
labouring men are in an impotent and dependent condi- 
tion. There is doubtless more ground for such opinion 
in countries where population has passed to the line of 
diminishing supplies, and where by law or usage prop- 
erty has special favours. But I am discussing the ques- 
tion from the American stand-point, and especially for 
the free States of the North American union. I suppose 
the Dominion of Canada is in much the same con- 
dition. At present it can hardly be said the late 
slave States are properly in a fair condition as to labour ; 
but when those States shall come to manifest a just 
sense of the rights of men, the dignity of labour will 
prevail, and they will have an untrammelled industry, 
and advance to the enjoyment of civil liberty. 

In our own country, we have not reached the line 
of diminishing supplies, and if we are wise, we shall 
never reach it. 

I do not specially criticise the writers of other coun- 
tries, where circumstances are different from our own. 
But I do not think there is any excuse for American 
writers to hold up our working-men as an oppressed 
and degraded class calling for sympathy. Those 



172 THE QUESTION OF 

writers do admit there may be moral improvement, but 
this idea they mostly hold as a remote, if not an 
improbable hope. They admit that here and there one 
rises from the ranks of working-men to positions of 
prominence. 

I know very well there is a large class of working- 
men who are in great measure dependent on their 
employers, and never rise to a comfortable well-being 
or to a reputable standing in society. No doubt some 
of these are the subjects of untoward circumstances, 
and should be treated with a kindly regard ; but for the 
most part we may trace their condition to their ignor- 
ance and improvidence. Even this class must be treated 
with kindness. On the other hand, there is, not 
" here and there one," but a large proportion of our 
working-men, who began life on wages and have 
reached a respectable competence, and some large 
wealth ; certainly these cannot be classed as a depend- 
ent body, calling for sympathy. 

It has been held that a man working for hire can- 
not rise by any cultivation of his powers from a life 
of dependence. I have known many exceptions to 
this statement. Many of the inventions and improve- 
ments in the useful arts have been wrought out, more 
or less, by men working for hire ; who pondered their 
thoughts in the shops and studied them in their eve- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. j 73 

nings and other intervals of work. I have known 
men who worked for wages — were excellent workme-n, 
who by occupying their leisure in useful reading and 
the society of intelligent men, were well informed on 
general subjects, and able to maintain discussion with 
intelligent men. 

I utterly disapprove and repudiate the Utopian 
methods of elevating the working-men, by what I re- 
gard as misguided sympathy. The working-men do 
elevate themselves ; and the class among them that 
call for sympathy may also elevate themselves. Is 
it not then far better to point out to the working-man 
the way he can raise himself than to unnerve him by 
holding up his condition as one of impotent depend- 
ence. In this free country he has the power, and 
if he consider his own good, he will use it, rather than 
trust his well-being to sentimental impracticabilities. 

The Question of Marriage. 

Writers on industrial economy attribute much of 
the hardships of the labouring class to early marriages. 
No doubt there is some foundation for this ; but it is 
a subject I do not propose to discuss. There are so 
many circumstances influencing the question of mar- 
riage, which each one must consider for himself, that 



174 THE QUESTION OF 

I do not see in what way I may give advice. This 
much, however, may be said : in marriage there is ne- 
cessity of responsibility for the sustenance of wife and 
children, and the education of the latter. Any provi- 
dent man will consider if his resources will be suf- 
ficient to meet the responsibility involved in these 
expenses. His judgment in this respect will very 
probably decide, whether he shall be a thrifty or an 
unthrifty man. 

Some hold this question of early marriage under 
the aspect of religion. It is not unusual to hear the 
sentiment, " the Lord will provide." I honor the doc- 
trine of trust in the providence of God; but I hold it 
in subordination to the teachings of the Christian Scrip- 
tures. Here I find the precept, " Thou shall not tempt 
the Lord thy God." The husbandman must trust in 
God for the rain and sunshine that are necessary to 
make his fruit ; but if he fail to cultivate his ground in 
seed time, l( he shall beg in harvest." " He that will 
not work, neither shall he eat." 

From the teaching of the Christian Scriptures it 
is evident to my mind, that God has given men 
power of labour and prudence, and that he will hold 
them to their responsibility for their proper exercise 
in industry and frugality ; and in their exercise men 
may expect his favour, and realize his promise, that 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 1 75 

" he that gathereth by labour shall increase." It has 
often appeared to me this sentiment — " the Lord will 
provide " — is advanced as an apology for doing some- 
thing that in all rational experience it was not expedi- 
ent to do, or at least not discreet under the existing 
condition. Those that yield to such indiscretion may 
expect disappointment, if they be not thrown into the 
dependent class. In this I must not be understood 
as hostile to marriage life ; for I regard it as eminently 
conducive to human happiness, and also as a funda- 
mental principle in civilization. It is the establish- 
ment of mutual confidence, fellowship and interest, 
most congenial to the happiness of men. It is the 
cardinal stimulus to effort for advancing the industry 
and economy that promote the material, mental and 
moral well-being of society ; and is naturally looked 
to, as a proper condition in the life of men. But in 
this, as in every enterprise of men, prudence de- 
mands that a man consider, if he have the means 
to meet its proper responsibilities. If he has not the 
means, he will probably fail to secure success. All I 
advise therefore is, that its consummation be deferred 
until a reasonable prospect is secured for the means 
of providing for its necessary responsibilities, always 
leaving something for thrift. I say leaving some- 
thing for thrift ; for the man who can see no pro- 



1 y6 THE QUESTION OF 

gress towards improving his affairs, will lose courage 
and make life a drudgery. 

Desire is importunate, and urges its claims with 
persistent energy ; presenting in strong terms the ne- 
cessity and propriety of its claims ; while on the other 
hand, the future good that trembles in the balance is 
modest, and scarcely dares to confront the energy of 
its opponent : depending on the influence of its wis- 
dom and prudence, it will only be heeded by the wise 
and discreet that wait on her counsel. It is an affair 
that commends itself to the careful consideration of 
every man who has any realizing appreciation of the 
individual responsibilities that he must assume in 
providing for himself and family, and will most prob- 
ably shape the course of his life. 

That there are many who have difficulty in provid- 
ing sustenance, and come to depend on public and 
private charity, there can be no doubt. But to charge 
their condition to the hard terms imposed on them by 
capitalists, is a great error. The capitalist has done 
the same by them as he has done by those who have 
risen to the condition of competent independence. 
The capitalist has furnished these dependent men 
with the instruments of labour, without which they 
could have had no civilized work to do ; and must have 
been driven to hunting and fishing for the means of 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 



177 



subsistence. The charge against the capitalist is one 
that strikes at the foundation of our civilization. But, 
it may be inquired, is there no remedy ? Must our 
civilization be maintained at so great sacrifice as we 
see in the comparatively large number of dependent 
men ? Is this a necessary result ? To answer these 
questions, we have only to look over our society and 
see how large the proportion of men who began life 
with little or no resources but their skill and labour, 
and have reached competent conditions. How did 
they reach this condition? It was not by chance, but 
by industriously and wisely using the instruments put 
into their hands from the savings accumulated by 
their predecessors — now called capitalists. If no such 
instrument had been provided, they must have depend- 
ed on the scanty resources of nature for the means of 
subsistence. With the same instruments the prudent 
man proceeded, until by industry and frugality he pro- 
vided for his own instruments, and steadily and surely 
rose to the position of competent independence, if not 
to that of a large capitalist. The dependent class had 
the same opportunity — had the benefit of the same in- 
struments, but had not the manly purpose to improve 
their advantages. They thought the world owed 
them a living — a great error of men, who forget the 

world owes them nothing; and that every man, who 

12 



l yS THE QUESTION OF 

is not a pauper, is dependent on his own industry and 
vigilance for the subsistence he needs or desires. 

It is a mistake -to suppose that in a free country, 
where labour is untrammelled by unjust laws or usages, 
there is any hardship in labour as to the two classes 
under consideration. The two classes are formed by 
their own unrestricted choice, and all that the govern- 
ment or the philanthropist can do in the premises, is 
to provide the means of education, so that all may im- 
prove on their own natural powers, and be rendered 
able to make a wise use of the instruments that have 
been provided, and which make their labour more 
effective for their own and the public good. An in- 
dolent or improvident man will surely come to want. 

If we discard civilization, we must fall into bar- 
barism. This latter result will inevitably come if the 
right of holding and enjoying the savings of frugal 
industry be denied. 

The class of dependent men do not wholly come 
from those who are entering the responsibilities of 
life, with only their skill and labour to provide for 
their well-being. It embraces many who had, in 
addition to their own industry, more or less of means 
received from parents and other friends to aid them, 
but failed to improve their advantages, and fell into 
poverty. It is not necessary here to discuss the par- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, jyg 

ticulars of their failure, as it arose from the same 
cause that threw the other members into this class ; 
namely, the want of industry and prudence to improve 
their advantages. 

As I have stated, I do not recommend that the 
class of dependent men be excluded from sympathy, 
however they may have arrived at this condition. 
They should have provision from public and private 
charity, sufficient for their sustenance ; but this 
should be provided wisely, so as not to make it a 
bounty on indolence and improvidence. The " poor 
laws of England/' the most elaborate and extensive 
of bounty or provision for the poor, are held by intel- 
ligent writers who have carefully studied them, as 
having been an agency that has greatly increased the 
number of dependent poor. 

Civilization cannot properly progress, if it do not 
call out and stimulate individual character, — call out 
the energy and moral nerve that gives vigour to all 
the powers of men, eschews dependence on others, 
and maintains a manly exercise of personal faculties. 
So far as we weaken these sentiments, we add to 
the class of dependent men, and impair the results 
of industry. There is no other doctrine for a free 
country. 

The writers who complain of our organization of 



l8o TIIE QUESTION OF 

industry, and insist on some new adjustment that 
shall give labour a larger share in production, do not 
seem to show any practical method by which their 
views may be realized. The law of supply and de- 
mand they reject as not equitable, and appear to 
content themselves with some impracticable notions 
to heal the difficulties they imagine to exist in the 
relations of labour and capital. They must certainly 
forget that the law of demand and supply is the out- 
growth of civilization, founded on the right and pro- 
priety of individual judgment, as to whether any 
exchange of services or goods is desirable, and con- 
ducive to the personal interest of the parties. The 
savage will exercise force to compel his fellow to 
part with his goods, if he happen to have such as 
he wants. He has respect to no other law, and the 
weak must yield to the strong. The great beauty of 
civilization is, to establish Institutional law, by which 
the weak are protected in their rights, and to secure 
every one in the personal right of making contract 
according as he regards his own interest. To abandon 
this principle, would be to throw out of sight the 
great fact of civilization, namely, the right of each 
man to the full enjoyment of his own industry and 
savings, or the right of private property, which cannot 
be abandoned without adopting the only alternative, 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. jg r 

which is barbarism. If we adopt this alternative, 
then, the instruments of civilized industry would soon 
be consumed, and men must come to depend on the 
chase, and natural fruits for means to sustain a scanty 
and precarious subsistence, and this for only a com- 
paratively meagre population. It cannot be success- 
fully controverted, that the right of private property 
is the only stimulus that can sustain efficient in- 
dustry. If I am right, then, the efforts to show there 
is some peculiar hardship in labour, — that it has an 
unequal contest with capital, can have no other effect 
than to demoralize the labourer, and make him look 
on his condition as one of peculiar privation, and thus 
impair his moral power, and with it his prospect of 
improving his condition. No such doctrine can pre- 
vail in a free country, with men who have the pur- 
pose to be men. 

Who are the Working Class. 

In this country, probably nineteen out of every 
twenty come to adult age with little or no means, 
except the skill and labour of their vocation. They 
depend on their manual and mental industry to provide 
for their sustenance and happiness. It was for the 
most part the same with their fathers before them. 
This commencement of individual responsibility calls 



1 82 THE QUESTION OF 

for the most careful consideration of the plan of life 
for a young man. He is now to decide whether he 
will put forth his energies in a manly way, and improve 
the advantages of the civilization by which he is 
surrounded, and rise steadily to the condition of an 
independent man, or whether he will be content to 
forego those advantages, and heedlessly slide into the 
class of dependent men. The choice should now be 
made, as at any future time the decision is most likely 
to be embarrassed not only by loss of time, but by 
habits that will offer serious obstacles to success. 

If the young man sets out with a look of appre- 
hension that he may not be able to overcome the 
difficulties he apprehends, and lacks the nerve that is 
indispensable to success — or if he commences on a 
plan of life that consumes his earnings as fast as 
earned, he will in all probability reach his position m 
the class of dependent men. If he have the weakness 
to yield to present desire, and not the nerve to control 
this when in the full strength of his powers, there is 
no probability he will do so when age has impaired 
those powers. On the other hand, if he resolutely 
eschews all indolence and dissipation, expends no 
means that are not necessary for his reasonable wants, 
enters no responsibilities until he has the means to 
meet them without imparing reasonable thrift, he will 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, Y ^ 

in all rational probability raise his condition to at least 
a competent independence. I say from my own 
experience and observation, to all American young 
men, this is the choice before you, and your success 
depends on yourselves. 

To some, the course recommended will appear a 
slow process. Its movement will certainly be slow in 
the beginning. Let not this discourage the young 
man. The early tardiness of result will be alleviated 
as the benefits are unfolded. A cheering and encourag- 
ing aspect will accompany the net proceeds of the 
first year, and though this may not be large, it will be 
a precursor of what a few years of patient perseverance 
will do. This is equally important in professional as 
in manual labour. The great fact must not be lost 
sight of, namely, this is the way in which, for the 
most part, capitalists have been made. It is no 
chimera ; but the fact of our history as a country. It 
has developed the blessings of free and untrammelled 
labour, open alike to all, with no special favours to 
any. 

Why then, in this free country, should we hear 
complaints of capitalists, who have been the strength 
of our civilization ? By the savings of their industry 
they have provided the instrumentalities that give 
efficiency to labour, and more abundantly provide the 



!84 the question of 

elements of well-being to individuals and to society. 
Is it not far better to direct our attention to those 
educationa limprovements by which we may hope to 
raise the dependent to an independent class, and so 
enlarge the industrial results by the double process of 
increasing production, and at same time diminishing 
the necessity for charity in sustaining the dependent 
class ? 

In speaking of capitalists, I do not confine myself 
simply to the larger class, but include also those who 
are able to provide instruments for their own labour, 
as well as those who are able to provide instruments 
for the labour of others. It should not be lost sight 
of, that these instruments only exist to any important 
extent in a civilized country ; and are accumulated by 
persistent labour and prudence. They are the power 
that makes labour eminently effective, giving the 
highest results in the production of fabrics indis- 
pensable for a civilized community. They are not 
held, and never can be, as owners, in the hands of the 
dependent class. They must be worked for; they are 
only accumulated by the thrifty class of working-men, 
who have the sagacity to see their value and the 
manly nerve to so prosecute their labour as to command 
the instruments for their own benefit. 

I must not be understood as offering any apology 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ^5 

for whatever may be wrong or oppressive on the part 
of capitalists, whether they obtain capital by their own 
or the labour of others. As a class, I do not think 
they are more inclined to disregard the principles 
of right than other men. In our free country the 
laws will essentially protect the labouring man, and 
any oppression will arouse the indignation of the pub- 
lic in favour of justice. I have been intimate with 
the circumstances of great numbers of working-men, 
and have rarely known an instance of a good work- 
man suffering injustice in any large industry. It is a 
general fact, the competent and faithful workman is 
cherished as a valuable appendage to any industrial 
enterprise. 

Labour a Necessity. 

Labour is a commodity the civilized world can- 
not dispense with. It is a resource, or a capital in the 
hands of the labourer, which is a power to elevate 
him in his moral and material well-being. He has the 
power to make it useful, same as any other capital, 
and has only to make a wise improvement of its re- 
sources, according to the market demand, and pru- 
dently husband its earnings. It enjoys the benefit of 
the large instrumentalities that civilization has put 
into its hands. In this free country it has the un- 



1 86 THE QUESTION OF 

trammelled right to exercise its full powers, and secure 
to itself the full blessings of its application. 

The man who commences life with only skill and 
labour as his stock in trade, should look up to the 
capitalist who furnished the instruments of his work, 
and anticipate the day when he will furnish his own 
instruments, and thus secure the wages of his labour 
and the profits of his instruments. This is far more 
noble and inspiring than to listen to the strains of 
sentimentalists who take credit to themselves in draw- 
ing for the working-man a doleful, if not a hopeless 
future, presenting capitalists as the enemies of the la- 
bouring man. Be assured this is not true. Consider, 
for a moment, what could the labourer do without the 
instruments provided for his work ? And where could 
the instruments be had if there were no capitalists ? 

If there were no instruments, then production 
would be impracticable, or require far greater labour 
in the few things that could be produced, and society, 
including working-men, would have so much less of 
the means of subsistence. No, it is not the capital- 
ist that injures labour ; he enlarges the field of its 
operations, and increases its productiveness, as can 
be testified by great numbers who have by these 
means raised themselves to the position of competent 
independence. Let any labouring man look candidly 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. jgy 

and intelligently into this subject, and notice what his 
condition would be, if there were none of the instru- 
ments of civilization that he could avail of. As a mat- 
ter of course he must descend into the condition of 
savage life, as that is the only alternative left for him 
to take. That would be worse than the dependent 
condition, as surrounded by civilization. 

I know there are men who, in their supercilious- 
ness, affect to look down on the labouring man as of a 
lower order in the scale of being than themselves, and 
to be treated as inferiors. Though all their supplies 
of necessary goods as well as their luxuries come to 
them as the product of labour, they still regard the 
labourer as occupying a low position. This class do 
not consider that labour is the lot of mankind, whether 
in barbarism or civilization, and only under the latter 
can there be those instrumentalities that make labour 
efficient — give progress in the affairs of men — dignify 
industry, and promote the general happiness of men. 
But that class of capitalists are the exception — the 
general sentiment in this free country and every 
country where freedom prevails is, to honor labour. It 
is only where slavery has debased public sentiment, or 
when laws or usages have created artificial distinction 
and privilege, that labour is not respected. In a free 
country labour will be honored, and no labour that is 



1 3 3 THE Q UESTION OF 

performed in a manly and faithful manner, will be dis- 
respected by any sensible and honest people. 

I have no sympathy with those who seem to take 
credit to themselves in complaints of our organization 
of labour, and who intimate, if they do not assume, 
there is some oppressive wrong on the part of capital- 
ists. If this idea is traced to its source, it will be 
found to be at issue with the right of private property. 
And what would there be in this right, if it did not 
secure its use to the owner. If others are to deter- 
mine it for him, then it must inevitably be wasted ; 
the motive for a prudent economy would be lost, and 
with it our civilization must be abandoned. As a 
matter of course, the instruments of industry would 
pass away, and society would drift into barbarism. If 
the complaint above referred to be sound, then civili- 
zation is an evil and our general well-being is not pro- 
moted, but injured by its influence, and barbarism is 
to be preferred. That the teaching above referred to 
is not more mischievous, arises from the fact that it is 
below the plane of our civilization, and is generally re- 
garded as impracticable. With all the folly that is 
manifest, there is still a prevailing number of sensible 
people who know that the anticipated possession of a 
thing is the stimulus to individual endeavour ; and 
endeavour is the prelude to elevation in material and 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. jgg 

moral well-being. All efforts that impair such endea- 
vour, take from the working-man the very element 
on which his hopes must be founded, and is a demor- 
alization, and by no means a process of his elevation. 

Let no American working-man, who possesses 
health and ordinary powers, feel that his lot is a hard 
one. It is in his power to provide for his own well- 
being. Put on a manly energy and do not hold your- 
self indigent, nor consider the capitalist as beyond 
your reach. The same power of industrious saving 
that made him, will in due time make you a capitalist. 
The instruments of your industry, that now belong to 
the capitalist, you may make your own. Be careful to 
cultivate a love of useful work, whether in regard to 
the work itself, or in its results. So far as you succeed 
in establishing this doctrine, you will be less tempted 
to look after the occupation of your time in frolic 
and dissipation, which is a sacrifice of time and means 
and also impairs health and character, rendering your 
march to future well-being difficult, if it does noi de- 
stroy your hopes. 

Be careful not to be led astray by the popularity 
of any proposition from your fellow-workmen. Con- 
sider carefully if the thing is wise, and will do you 
good. Many men go wrong and have no better excuse 
than that others did the same, or that others advised 



IQO THE QUESTION- OF 

them. It sometimes requires moral nerve to resist the 
plausible plea of associates, who, in their ill-directed 
ardor, are very likely to make a demand on your pride 
or good feeling in order to enlist you in what may 
prove their folly, and by no means a measure for your 
good. The man who carefully studies his own interest, 
and makes it a rule to weigh well any measure that 
may be proposed for his action, is not likely to be led 
astray by ridicule, or false notions of honor. In such 
matters it is always well to consider the party that 
offers counsel. If it be one that maintains a sound, 
discreet character, it is well to listen; but if it be one 
who loves amusement and idle chat, rather then use- 
ful work, it will not profit to accept the advice he may 
offer. Keep your own counsel. 

General Suggestions. 

I would like to warn every young man against the 
error and delusion that may tempt him from the path 
of honest endeavour in providing for his future well- 
being. But this is impossible in regard to the numer- 
ous details that demand his attention, and will more 
or less mould his career. Therefore I can only discuss 
those cardinal principles that may serve as a basis. 

With all the preparation he may have, the young 
man will have much to learn as he moves forward in 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. T g X 

his personal experience. Many things will occur that 
he had not thought of, and expose him to errors 
and disappointments. Professed friends and even 
real friends, will sometimes advise him unwisely, even 
when they intend his good. There are many intric- 
acies and troubles in business affairs that can only be 
well understood from the teachings of personal expe- 
rience. These admonish caution. The thing may 
present a plausible aspect, yet the end may not be 
clear. In any path proposed that you have not fully 
explored and made satisfactory to your own judgment, 
proceed with caution and feel your way. In the mean 
time, " make haste slowly." 

There are two things for a young man to keep 
steadily in view in order to secure success; namely, to 
fit himself with a thorough knowledge of the art he 
has chosen for a vocation, and the tact necessary to 
obtain occupation in the same. In regard to the first, 
no opportunity should be lost that may improve his 
skill. This will depend very much upon the thorough- 
ness he has acquired in his apprenticeship. If he has 
studied well its principles and acquired skilful manip- 
ulation in his art, it will not be easy to deceive him by 
any plausible theory that may be proposed, and he will 
be able to scan and criticise any proposition and judge 
if there be anything in it by which he may improve 



!Q2 THE QUESTION OF 

his art or his tools. He should always be looking and 
studying for improvement, and to do this wisely or 
even safely, he must understand well the principles 
involved in his vocation. Be cautious of the advice of 
your fellow-workmen ; not a suspicious caution, but a 
prudent caution. Though it may be painful to think 
so, it is necessary to bear in mind what experience 
teaches, that some of these will probably go into the 
dependent class, where I trust it is not your purpose 
to follow them. Take no advice that may lead you to 
waste material, tools or time ; or to impress you with 
the severity of any irksome feature in the work of your 
vocation ; but bear in mind there is no vocation that 
has not something unpleasant in its occupation, and 
that your decision and energy in overcoming such im- 
pediments to your progress is only a necessary discip- 
line to strengthen your energy and purpose and there- 
oy fit you to overcome any obstacle that may oppose 
your progress. You may also be tempted to seek 
vain and unprofitable amusements that tend to dissi- 
pation and waste — do not heed them, but learn to love 
the path to the shop, better than the path from it. Be 
not over-active on the ringing of the bell for vacation. 
In regard to the second of the above propositions — 
" the opportunity for occupation," I remark : As you 
enter on the field of individual responsibility, it is very 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. jqj 

possible you may find a scanty opening for employment 
in your particular vocation. Some peculiarity may 
restrict the demand, and you do not find ready call for 
your services. As yet you have had but little oppor- 
tunity to strengthen your character as a workman. 
Under such circumstances keep a vigilant eye on all 
the field in range of your vision. If anywhere an 
opening appears, though it may be inferior to your ex- 
pectations, do not fail to embrace it. Once fairly in 
the harness, you will have opportunity to show what 
you can do, and now, by your industry and fidelity, so 
thoroughly perform your work that you will gain char- 
acter, and though you may receive less wages than 
your work is worth, you will gain standing in your vo- 
cation, and come to be in demand. No one can see far 
in the future ; but it is obvious a man in work, though 
it may not be what he is entitled to, stands a far bet- 
ter chance of obtaining the position to which his merits 
entitle him than one who stands with folded hands 
outside. A man in the harness is much more likely 
to attract attention, and gain the employment he seeks 
and desires, than one who is merely in waiting. On this 
ground take No. 2 or 3, if you cannot obtain No. 1. In 
all cases avoid, if possible, an idle waiting, even though 
some unionist may sneer, call you a black sheep or by 
other vituperative epithet, with a view to frighten you 

13 



!Q4 THE QUESTION OF 

to decline what it may be your interest to do. In all 
such attempts en your independence, remember that it 
usually happens the sneering associate is looking for 
his own and not your interest. Be your own judge, 
the law of demand and supply is the only safe standard 
as established by the market, and it is far better to de- 
pend on your own skill and fidelity than on any mo- 
nopoly that can be formed by Trades Unions. 

In the course of invention there is danger that your 
special vocation may be impaired. This is quite like- 
ly to happen in a mill where several classes of me- 
chanics are employed. To fortify yourself against 
such contingencies, lose no opportunity to notice the 
manipulation in different departments of work. If 
you have a good knowledge of mechanical principles, 
and are well skilled in the use of tools, you will readily 
appreciate the several kinds of work, and be able with 
very little practice to do such other work as you may 
find it your interest to do. It is not necessary for 
this that you neglect your own work, as there will often 
be opportunity, especially in the same mill, to notice 
the operations in other branches than your own. It 
is very possible this may fit you for continuous work, 
when your special branch may be superseded by new 
inventions. 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. ig$ 

Necessity of Experience. 

No measure of educational outfit can dispense with 
personal experience. The latter is a necessary com- 
plement of the former. But experience is only ob- 
tained by practice and observation in the course of 
affairs, and this the young working-man has had only 
limited opportunity to acquire. Practical experience 
can only be acquired by the personal intercourse of the 
individual ; and much care will be required to so sift 
out the chaff from the wheat as to make it valuable. 
If the process be attended with an undue degree of 
vanity, or high confidence of the young man in his 
own powers, tending to eschew the -experience of oth- 
ers, and hardly profiting by his own, he will probably 
pass through life in a process of continual blunders, 
never profiting by even his own experience. 

It requires wisdom, and the exercise of a careful, 
discreet reflection, to profit from even one's own ex- 
perience. It is far easier to make a mistake than to 
thoroughly investigate a subject. A man may be 
largely educated, and this to small purpose, if at the 
same time he has not had intermingled with his edu- 
cation a sound discipline. I mean by discipline, a 
habit of carefully scrutinizing any proposition, accord- 
ing to its importance, with the ability to lay aside pre- 



ig6 THE QUESTION OF 

conceived views that may have taken possession of the 
mind, and are very apt to be a barrier to truth. A 
man should not yield his judgment too readily ; 
he should see there was adequate reason, and after 
giving a proposition a full hearing, that convinces 
him of its truth, he will do well to ponder awhile be- 
fore he makes it the basis of his business action. This 
is the converse of a careless, easy adoption of a meas- 
ure, that lacks the moral nerve to make a thorough 
examination of its merits. No man can expect suc- 
cess in a loose harness ; it must be buckled up, so as 
to take direct hold of the work. This should be care- 
fully considered in all education, as a loose, careless 
habit, as well as a. loose harness, will destroy all hope 
until it be corrected. It is not all gold that glitters ; 
but it is an established fact, that no work can be well 
prosecuted, unless the appliances for its manipulation 
are well appointed and in fitting order. 

Elements of Moral Culture. 

I do not think I can properly leave this subject 
without considering the tendency of the human mind to 
err in regard to moral principle, and improperly yield to 
the urgency of desire, of passion and appetite. I have 
endeavoured to set forth the benefits of self-control, and 
to urge its importance in our civilization — -its necessi- 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. Ig-r 

ty as an indispensable requisite for the advancement 
of our well-being, whereby we may obtain the bless- 
ings of a sound cultivation. Now I have one more 
suggestion, in the way of precaution, to fortify the sen- 
timent of a sound morality, which is the basis of all 
human improvement It is the question put by the 
Psalmist, (cxix. 9) ( ' Wherewithal shall a young man 
cleanse his way ? " To this the Psalmist makes answer 
as follows : " By taking heed thereto according to 
thy word. ,, It will be understood the word referred 
to, is the Christian Scriptures. It is not my purpose 
to make extended remarks on this suggestion ; only 
to allude to some general principles that bear on the 
business prosperity and happiness of men. 

I think it will not be controverted, these Scriptures 
are a vast store of searching wisdom, bearing on all the 
concerns of life. Nowhere can a man find so close 
and searching a mirror of himself, or of the motives 
that govern men. In language of unsurpassed 
terseness and eloquence, in varied and numerous 
forms, its teaching is unfolded to the understanding 
so as to show in clear lines, " the light that lighteth 
every man." They are so plain that no honest man 
need fail to learn the duty he owes to his Maker, or to 
his fellow-man. Though they contain things we may 
not understand, we shall find by careful and honest 



ICj8 THE QUESTION OF 

study that such difficulties will diminish, and there 
will be found no want of ability for reaching the 
knowledge above stated. 

It is important to keep steadily in view the 
leading characteristics of these Scriptures, which are 
to establish and maintain "justice and judgment/' 
righteousness and peace among men. However their 
meaning may be perverted to give interpretation to 
favour motives of ambition, it is their great purpose 
to establish the doctrine of personal responsibility ; 
and consequently it is the province and the duty of 
every one to study their teachings for himself. To 
follow the blind leader is held to be no excuse. It 
may be replied, these Scriptures relate to a future life, 
and what has that to do with the question of labour 
and capital ? No doubt they relate to a future life, but 
they by no means disregard the life that now is. It is 
according to Scripture teaching that a wise discharge 
of the duties of this life is necessary to prepare us for 
the life to come. But I do not propose to follow this 
further than to point out the special benefits they 
afford in establishing a sound social and business 
character, leaving to every one as they may think 
proper to consider their influence on a future life. 

The Scriptures afford the most varied and explicit 
rules for defining and enforcing industry, prudence 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. jgg 

and frugality in affairs — uprightness in all business 
intercourse ; purity and forbearance in manners, and 
the courtesy, kindness and fellow-feeling that make 
happiness for the individual and for society, and lay 
the foundation of civil liberty. They give us such a 
knowledge of ourselves, and so unfold the springs of 
human action, that we are able to see more clearly the 
motives that govern others, and so guard us against 
deception. By a candid and diligent study of the 
Scriptures we shall see those tendencies in the human 
mind that pervert their teaching and lead to errors. 
They are adapted to all conditions of men, in 
fact they place all men on the same moral level, and 
lay the foundation of universal freedom for man, under 
the safeguards of Institutional law. 

I am aware it may be replied, — Some men do not 
recognize the Divine authority of those Scriptures. I 
cannot discuss this, but may remark, eminent men, 
who entertain this doubt, have borne testimony to the 
high moral excellence of the Scriptures, commending 
their value in establishing virtue among men. What- 
ever doubt may be suggested, it cannot be successfully 
controverted, that the highest rank of civilization, in all 
historic time, has appeared where the light of the Chris- 
tian Scriptures has shone most clearly, and where their 
teaching has been most fully exemplified in the morals 



200 THE QUESTION OF 

of men. General education, science and the useful 
ar t s — all those charitable institutions that are designed 
to ameliorate suffering, and provide for those that are 
unable to provide for themselves, are the outgrowth 
of the Christian Scriptures, and show in strong light 
the superiority of Christian over Pagan civilization. 

As to our own country, our Institutional freedom, 
our right of conscience, and the unrestricted rights of 
labour and protection under law, rest on our training in 
principles of civil liberty, as taught in those Scriptures. 
They are the foundation of our civilization, and this 
will be perfected, as we advance to the more full realiza- 
tion and practice of their teachings. They are the 
guardian of the rights of the working-man, the only 
lever that can raise him to the moral standard 
necessary to enable him to make the best improvement 
of his faculties, and by these to raise him to the posses- 
sion of the means of independence and happiness, 
giving dignity to his labour, and self-respect in all 
his intercourse with his fellow-men. 

No young man should fail to study carefully the 
Proverbs of Solomon. They show a profound knowl- 
edge of business, and wisdom in all the affairs of men. 
Taken in connection with the general teaching; of 
Scripture, they are a rich fund of instruction in all the 
affairs that affect the happiness of mankind. The 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 2 0I 

man who loves civil liberty, and the blessings of Institu- 
tional law, will find in the careful study of the Scrip- 
tures the firm foundation of whatsoever is just, whatso- 
ever is pure, and of every virtue that can adorn man and 
give eminent value to the high civilization they incul- 
cate. And these are the fundamental principles that 
secure to all men the blessings of freedom. In all the 
affairs of life, in individual, social and political duties, 
he will realize the value of the advice quoted from the 
Psalmist — " taking heed thereto according to thy 
word." 

Some men claim that they are the only authorized 
interpreters of Scripture, and that it is dangerous 
for common men to undertake the reading, except 
under their guidance. The great apostle expressed 
approval of men who searched the Scriptures to ascer- 
tain whether he gave the correct interpretation. No 
doubt various interpretations are made by different 
men, and these men of high attainments and ability, 
who maybe regarded as having equal authority. But 
if the apostle was right, then the layman should 
examine for himself, and be able to judge which 
interpretation was the most faithful representation of 
Scripture truth. There doubtless is some Scripture it 
may be difficult or even impossible to understand. 
This may be inferred from the varied conclusions of 



202 THE QUESTION OF 

learned Doctors in theology, who may be equally en- 
titled to respect. But the precept, "Thou shalt not 
steal," and numerous others of equal simplicity and 
importance, will be readily understood by all honest 
minds. 

In the above remarks, I by no means intend any 
disrespect towards the teachers of religion ; would 
rather listen with respectful attention to their inter- 
pretations and teaching. I regard them as of eminent 
value in inculcating the great moral truths of Scripture. 
But I regard it as of equal importance, that those who 
listen be so well instructed in the knowledge of 
Scripture truth, as to be able to distinguish, whether 
the teacher is labouring for the shell or the kernel. 

The Scripture does not say ye shall not steal, but 
thou shalt not steal. After having read the Scriptures 
with considerable attention for more than half a cen- 
tury, I have reached the conclusion, that they address 
us as individuals, demanding personal attention and 
obedience to their commands ; and on this basis they 
devolve the personal obligation on each one, to study 
their teachings, and be guided as under a call for 
individual duty ! Indeed this idea is amply inculcated 
in the Scriptures, as devolving on each one the duty 
of studying for one's self, and declaring that they are 
so plain, " the wayfaring man " may understand all 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 2 0$ 

that is necessary for the discharge of his religious 
duties. I do not mean by this, that there are no 
social duties, for it will be found these are all embraced 
in individual duty, as the same are beautifully unfolded 
in this great system of moral government. 

I have not introduced this subject as a theologian, 
but as a layman, after having reached the conclusion 
that the Christian Scriptures are eminently beneficent 
in their influence on the business affairs of men. 
They include the stern justice that protects the weak, 
and maintains to all equal rights of labour, of con- 
science and political freedom, " To keep the way of 
the Lord, to do justice and judgment." They have 
produced the highest civilization the world has known, 
and especially in establishing Institutional law, for 
the maintenance of freedom and the just rights of 
men. Every working-man (and we are mostly of this 
class) should regard them as the constitution of his 
rights in all the affairs of business, of society and of 
civil liberty. 

All the scientific writers on industrial economy 
that I have seen, agree in the opinion, it is the culti- 
vation of the moral in men that must be relied on to 
raise them to the best use of their powers. I think 
this sentiment cannot be successfully controverted. 
If, then, it be conceded that our progress in civiliza- 



204 THE Q ues:jo ' v 0F 

tion, or the general elevation of society, depends on 
our growth in moral character, the teaching of the 
Scriptures must be regarded as highly valuable, if not 
indispensable to that progress. In one respect it 
must be held the Scripture is peculiarly influential on 
the masses of men — namely, that it adds to the 
wisdom of its precepts the force of a Divine sanction. 
To its precepts it adds, " do this and live." 

Whatever may be claimed for any systems of 
morals that have been wrought out and presented to 
the world by human wisdom, they have produced 
comparatively very small influence on the order, 
justice, purity and general happiness of mankind, as 
compared to what has been accomplished by Scripture 
culture. In connection with education, the Scriptures 
are our reliance for enlarging and beautifying our 
civilization in all that can elevate and adorn our man- 
hood, and so reducing the ratio of the dependent to the 
independent class of men. This is not all : as we im- 
prove the material and moral well-being of society, we 
shall diminish the criminal class, and with it the large 
expenses involved in protecting society from their 
depredations. As we advance in moral culture, men 
will " cease to do evil and learn to do well. ,, 

I believe in the doctrine of the providence of God 
ruling over all the affairs of men in righteousness and 



LABOUR AXD CAPITAL. 2 0$ 

truth. At the same time I hold, that according to 
Scripture teaching, the Divine rule is so ordered and 
administered, as in a proper sense to leave men in the 
control of their own destiny. This is manifest in the 
experience of men. Those who, in an abiding faith 
in the authority of the Scriptures, and in obedience to 
their teaching, practice diligent industry, prudence, 
uprightness and purity of life, are found to constitute 
the great bulk of the independent class. On the 
other hand, the dependent class are mostly made up 
of men who are wanting in some, if not all those 
virtues. 

I therefore say to the young working-man, your 
destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of pur- 
pose, left in your own hands to decide which class you 
will fall into. God will aid you, when you put your 
shoulder to the wheel, and with manly effort overcome 
the impediments that may appear in your path. This 
is the main question, and it can only be decided by 
yourself. The benefit, no less than the responsibility, 
rest with you. If you have not the moral nerve to 
meet it affirmatively — and prefer a loose, indolent waste 
of your powers, you must eventually take your place 
in the ranks of dependent men. There is no escape 
from this. 

However men may be degraded to a love of low 



20 5 THE QUESTION OF 

pleasures, and come to disrespect all else, there can 
be no doubt the moral is what gives the noble char- 
acteristics of our being ; and surely we shall be ele- 
vated, as we progress in the formation of the cardinal 
virtues, that give eminence, and adorn our civilization. 
It should be our hope and joy that we live under 
the reign of Institutional law, founded on the basis of 
Scripture morality, whereby every man is free in the 
exercise of all his powers of industry and virtue, and 
at the same time protected against any that would assail 
his right, or impair his success. The power of every 
man is his own property, and when exercised with dis- 
cretion and energy, it will redound to his benefit and 
honour. The true and legitimate advance of moral 
culture, will work an amelioration that can be found in 
no other way. It will tend to modify, if it does not 
remove, all ground for contest in this question of labour 
and capital. 

Instruments and Labour. 

I cannot dismiss this subject without calling the 
attention of working-men to the benign agency that 
has put in their hands the instruments that have vastly 
increased their power. This has been referred to in- 
cidentally in the preceding pages ; but I desire to be 
somewhat more explicit. It is proper to consider, these 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 2 oy 

instruments have not resulted from accident, nor from 
any arbitrary action of men. They have been sought 
for the purpose of alleviating the severity and increas- 
ing the effectiveness of labour. They have been the 
product of many intelligent men, who by slow degrees, 
in the application of their minds to invent, and by per- 
sistent perseverance in manipulation of the varied 
parts — patiently varying their operations as indicated 
by experiment, until a form had been reached and so 
combined as to meet the object they desired. Now, 
it is important to consider the object they had in view. 
What was it ? It was to mitigate the more severe toil 
and increase the facility of manipulation in fabricating 
the goods that are called for by the wants of men ; 
to reduce manual labour by substituting mechanical 
agents and brute force to perform the work that had 
been done by men ; and so provide a more easy pro- 
duction of articles needed ; and also to do works that 
manual power had not been able to accomplish. 

The result of these instruments has greatly changed 
the characteristics of labour. What before was either 
not produced at all, or was produced by manual labour, 
is now in great measure the labour of mechanical 
agents or brute force. Thev have not removed the 
necessity of manual labour, but have taken away in 
large measure the more painful toil, and given it a 



2o8 THE QUESTION OF 

more watchful and skilled character, whereby a man 
exercises his body more lightly, and finds employment 
for his mind. This latter is very important as giving 
a man an interest in thought, that greatly alleviates 
the toil of manipulation ; giving the pleasure of mind, 
as co-operating in production, mitigating the severity 
of continued manual effort, and so giving pleasurable 
occupation, by uniting the action of the body and 
mind in a manner that relieves the severity of toil, 
and so escaping much of the drudgery of the old 
process. 

As suggested, it does not render labour unnecessary, 
but provides a cheaper and easier process of fabrication ; 
that is, to make goods more plenty, and thereby bring 
the cost within the means of a larger number of men. 
In the changes that have been made by improved 
methods of industry, there has no doubt resulted more 
or less of inconvenience to the labourer, who has 
found his old trade superseded, and he compelled to 
resort to some other occupation, or adapt himself to 
the new method of work. This must be admitted as 
an evil ; but I see no remedy, as mankind will seize 
every improved method that cheapens commodities, and 
the labourer must be exposed to the risk of such 
improvements as may interfere with any special 
occupation. This view is in many cases relieved by 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL, 209 

the facility which the new method affords of employ- 
ment by the same workmen that were occupied in the 
old method ; the change not being such that the 
former workmen may not adapt themselves to the new 
requirements. 

While it must be admitted the changes above 
referred to have some deranging influence on labour, 
there can be no doubt the volume of labour has been 
greatly increased by the improved instruments that 
have been provided. The reason for this is found in 
the fact that by cheapening commodities, consumption 
is increased. This is what gives the public favour to 
all improved methods of production. The inventor 
may, or may not, regard the public good ; but that is 
not material to the question, as the main thing here 
considered is the effect of improved methods of 
labour on the interests of society. In this view they 
are the legitimate production of civilization — a contin- 
ual striving to effect the most economical production. 
However the man that sees his occupation disturbed, 
may relish the innovation, or have a claim for sympathy, 
the public will always hail with satisfaction any new 
method by which supplies may be cheapened. 

That the above view is a correct interpretation of 
public sentiment, is manifest from the action of 
governments in granting letters patent to inventors 



210 THE QUESTION GF 

for a term of years, during which they are secured in 
the exclusive right of their invention. Until the term 
has expired, the public has no right to the use of the 
invention. That this action of governments is found- 
ed on the idea that improved methods of production 
are a public benefit, there can be no doubt. Every 
nation strives to perfect its own facilities, in order to 
enter in the most favourable way into the competitions 
of other nations, in all the industries it is adapted to 
prosecute. It is obvious, other things being equal, 
the nation that has the most intelligent and ingenious 
people, will control the largest amount of productive 
industry. Consequently they will be able to maintain 
the largest commerce, and support the most dense 
population. 

The progress of ingenuity within the last century 
has introduced and brought into successful operation 
an amount of improved methods, that have revolution- 
ized productive industry. No intelligent man would 
thing of going back to former methods. As a people we 
have gradually accommodated ourselves to this new 
and improved-order of industry. In cheapening the 
cost of commodities, it has given enlarged consump- 
tion — extending to numerous members of society, arti- 
cles of living they had not previously enjoyed, besides 
furnishing necessary articles for men at a reduced cost 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 211 

This is the condition of industry that makes large 
demands for the instruments of labour. It is a condi- 
tion in which the labourer cannot do without the in- 
struments, and the instruments can only be had by 
the saving that results from abstinence. This absti- 
nence is the frugal husbanding of the proceeds of 
labour, and is stimulated by an appreciation of its 
value in the future. The instrument so secured by 
the prudent abstinent, is simply another term for 
capital. It was obtained by persistent saving in order 
to secure the benefit of its use in the hands of the 
abstinent, or with a view to loan it for a consideration 
to those who had not saved it. After invention, the 
instrument is merely the result of prudent labour, and 
is entitled to its pay, on precisely the same basis, that 
a man is entitled to pay for his work. They are alike 
work, and stand on equal terms as to right of remun- 
eration. There is no possible difference in the rights 
of these parties. The compensation is in both cases 
for labour — though one be preferred for a present ob- 
ject, and the other through abstinence for the present 
to secure a future object; they are equally the product 
of labour, and enter on the list of free trade between 
the parties, the same as any commodities should do. 

The labourer needs the instruments, for their 
necessity has become incorporated in the existing civ- 



2 1 2 THE Q UESTION OF 

ilization, and it would be in vain that he look for 
sources of industry that did not require them. In 
any effort that should dispense with the instruments, 
the labourer would be impotent ; while with their 
use, labour would be more productive to the labourer 
as well as to the public. No man can have the in- 
struments unless he is willing to provide them, or if 
he has not provided them, he should pay the man who 
has saved them, a proper interest or benefit for their 
use. On this principle the whole order of our busi- 
ness civilization rests, and it cannot be disturbed by 
any process that does not lead to barbarism. Some 
regard this view as a hardship to labour, which is sim- 
ply a plea that the prudent abstinent shall divide his 
earnings with the improvident, who chose to consume 
their earnings, and have left nothing for saving. 

The fact of the existence of the instruments, that 
are in readiness for the labourer, is a vast benefit to 
him ; greatly enlarging the field of his labour, and 
giving him the power, if he has the requisite absti- 
nence, to provide them for himself. He has the 
experience before him of the practicability of doing 
this, from the large numbers who have by a course of 
prudent industry accumulated their own instruments. 
These instruments which I have described, are only 
another name for capital. The question, therefore, if 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 2 I$ 

there be any contest, is between the instruments and 
the labour, that is performed by their means, and 
which could not be performed without them. 

It is obvious the preceding remarks are not ne- 
cessary to convince intelligent men ; but I am writing 
with a view of benefiting young working-men ; a very 
large class, to which our young men mostly belong. 
In their inexperience they are liable to be misled on 
a question in which they are deeply interested. It is 
sought in various ways to impress on their minds 
several erroneous notions ; as that labour is oppressed — 
that it is weak — that in its impotence it is unable to 
provide for itself, and should in some way have aid to 
relieve its burdens. In regard to all this, if we did 
not enjoy civil liberty, and our society was divided 
into classes, in which the mass of men were made to 
contribute a large share of their earnings to the 
support of a privileged class, there would be some 
ground for those claims, which are held to be philan- 
thropic. But this is by no means our situation. We 
are a free people, and such classes as we have are 
what they have made themselves by the legitimate 
exercise of their own personality, in the same field 
that was alike open to all men. We know no law of 
entail or privilege ; every man is free to use his powers 
as he thinks will best promote his own interest. All 



214 THE QUESTION OF 

labourers have the dignity of unrestricted manhood, 
with full and free scope for their endeavours. They 
stand on an independent basis, the basis of freedom, 
with the right and the power to exercise themselves 
for their own benefit, and every one can take such 
course of industry as he regards most likely to pro- 
mote his own welfare, with a reasonable certainty 
of finding a market for his skill and labour. The in- 
struments civilized liberty has put into his hands are 
eminently superior to those of any previous age — are 
a great boon to the labourers of the present day, and 
only demand a manly energy to make them success- 
ful in providing a competent independence. 

It must not be forgotten that everv able-bodied 
young man is in duty bound to provide for his own 
well-being. He has no right to expect another will 
work for him gratuitously, any more than he will 
expect to give his own services without compensation. 
If his neighbour has provided the instruments he 
needs, he should expect to pay for their use accord- 
ing to their market value. They increase his power 
of production, and open up a larger field for his labour 
than could otherwise exist. As surely as he makes 
the instruments a means of abstinence, and so gathers 
them for himself, he will expect most rightfully a 
profit for their use. The latter is the motive for 



LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 2 l$ 

saving ; and it is one that has been and will continue 
to be efficient to every man who has the moral nerve 
to be a man. The man who lacks such motive is 
certainly to be pitied for his imbecility, but has no 
other claim to sympathy. 

This whole subject resolves itself into a question 
of manliness. If this is sufficient to overcome the 
imbecility that weak minds are prone to indulge, in 
raising impediments and forming excuses, the young 
man will steadily rise in his condition, and will soon 
learn that capital and labour have no contest that is 
not common in all exchanges for services or goods. 

Everything a man works for has a value that 
arises from desire, and whether this be for present or 
future use, is immaterial — it may be for bread, or it 
may be for instruments to improve his production ; 
in either case he labours for the article, and is entitled 
to the product, and to such appropriation of the pro- 
ceeds as he judges best for his interest. In the case 
of the instruments he has begun to be a capitalist in 
precisely the same way that most capitalists have 
been made, whether they have been employed in 
mental or manual labour, or in both combined. 

I am well aware the preceding remarks are hardly 
less or more than truisms, and am far from claiming 
originality ; and have only designed to put them in 



2 i6 THE QUESTION OF LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 

order as best I could, for the purpose of leading to 
reflection on matters that young men are very liable 
to regard in a light way, if they do not entirely over- 
look. I am very sure they often neglect them, not- 
withstanding they are matters that deeply concern 
their welfare. If our civilization makes useful pro- 
gress, it must certainly be developed in reducing the 
ratio of the dependent class, and also that of the 
criminal class. We shall not progress by declaiming 
against our civilization, as organized for carrying for- 
ward our productive industry ; but by elevating the 
moral and mental standard and thereby bringing the 
animal proclivities of our natures into subordination 
to reason and right, and so direct them to the legiti- 
mate purposes for which they were ordained. 



